GoKawiilThe AI boom is in many ways a hype cycle like no other. Sure, there are comparisons to draw between the dotcom surge of the late 90s and the mobile revolution of the noughties, but in terms of capital invested and lofty predictions on it causing huge societal shifts, it stands ahead of the rest.
The speed of that progress comes with big hurdles. AI builders are having to grapple with constraints like access to the energy that will power the huge data centers, a memory chip crunch and, increasingly, the efficiency of transferring data between AI chips and systems.
An emerging technology, known as photonics, offers a route to solving for the latter.
Photonics can be used in AI infrastructure by using light to move data between graphics processing units (GPUs), memory, networking chips, servers and data centers, instead of relying on electrical signals running along copper.Some photonics tech is already in use, including in fiber optic connectivity.
But much of the connectivity inside AI servers and racks currently travels along copper wires, limiting speed and increasing energy costs.
"One of the main bottlenecks for the performance of AI models is the speed of communication between chips and between chip servers," said Gil Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson.
"The faster the communication, the faster the user can get their answer or their task executed," he added. "By moving the connections between chips and between servers to optical, the performance of the models can improve significantly."