Is Extropic's "thermodynamic computing" just a classical stochastic computer dressed in quantum buzzwords?

Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. Stack Overflow for Teams is now called Stack Internal. Bring the best of human thought and AI automation together at your work. Bring the best of human thought and AI automation together at your work. Learn more TeamsQ&A for workConnect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.I was looking at this new company Extropic and their claims (Video, Paper).They claim they are using thermodynamics to keep a bit in a "superposition" of 0 and 1, but then explicitly state it is not quantum computing.This seems like a massive contradiction.A "superposition" that is caused by thermal noise (what they call a "flickering" bit) is the definition of a classical statistical mixture, not a quantum superposition (which is destroyed by thermal noise).The "probabilistic bit" (p-bit) concept isn't new. This sounds exactly like classical stochastic computing.So, what is it?Are they just rebranding a known, classical concept with the word "superposition" for marketingWhat is the novel physics here that differentiates this from a simple, noisy, analog circuit?Yes. This looks like a classical computer than a quantum one. As you noted, concepts like p-bits and stochastic computing are not new, and classical statistical mixtures are fundamentally different from quantum superposition. A true quantum computer must rely on genuinely quantum phenomena to encode and process information, which this system does not appear to do. Their work seems to focus on how their classical stochastic hardware can be applied to machine learning tasks. They never mention the word 'quantum' anywhere in the paper, so it is likely that the term 'superposition' was either used as a buzzword or simply misused.Thanks for contributing an answer to Quantum Computing Stack Exchange!But avoid …Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.Required, but never shown By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy. Start asking to get answersFind the answer to your question by asking.Explore related questionsSee similar questions with these tags.To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. Site design / logo © 2025 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA . rev 2025.11.20.37056