[mtgx]

All of that is true, but according to IBM's own definition of "quantum advantage" I think Google at least achieved that.

All in all, it seems more of a battle of semantics, and the two companies talking past each other. It's kind of how everyone seems to interpret Moore's Law to mean "any progress in computational performance whatsoever" these days, as opposed to the original definition of "transistors doubling in the same space every 18-24 months," and then using that to "prove" that "Moore's Law is still alive." (it's not, and hasn't been for a long time).

I think in the end what's important here is that it was proven that a quantum computer can do "something" (yes, even anything at all is a big milestone) significantly faster than a classical system.

Because this is what matters in the end that quantum computers can do some tasks significantly faster than classical systems. They don't have to do only tasks that are "impossible" for classical systems to be useful. It's also why we use GPUs, FPGAs, and ASICs for some tasks, instead of just using CPUs for everything.

I do agree that it was in Google's interest not to work so hard on optimizing the classical system for the simulation, to make its quantum computer look that much more impressive. But if the quantum computer is still faster, then it doesn't really matter.

[sanxiyn]

No, if your standard is "faster", even D-Wave achieved that. Quantum supremacy is about exponential speedup, and in light of IBM's claim, Google's claim of quantum supremacy is very much in doubt.