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Computers that calculate with light could make superfast AI

By Timothy Revell

19 March 2018

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

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The future of artificial intelligence might be bright. Computers that use lasers to carry out computation are showing that they can do complex algorithms faster and more efficiently than standard chips.

If the rate of progress continues they may be able to head off the impending crisis that threatens Moore’s Law, the idea that computing processing power doubles every two years, and herald a new type of computers that are cheaper, faster, and much less energy intensive.

Although similar claims have been made since the 1960s, the tide may finally be starting to turn, as a host of…

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