AI-designed chips are so weird that 'humans cannot understand them'

The AI treated the chip design as one complete system rather than a collection of parts. Engineering researchers have demonstrated that artificial intelligence (AI) can design complex wireless chips in hours, a feat that would have taken humans weeks to complete. Not only did the chip designs prove more efficient, the AI took a radically different approach — one that a human circuit designer would have been highly unlikely to devise. The researchers outlined their findings in a study published Dec. 30 2024 in the journal Nature Communications . The research focused on millimeter-wave (mm-Wave) wireless chips, which present some of the biggest challenges facing manufacturers due to their complexity and need for miniaturization. These chips are used in 5G modems, now commonly found in phones. Manufacturers currently rely on a mix of human expertise, bespoke circuit designs and established templates. Each new design then goes through a slow process of optimization, based on trial and ... Read full article.