Photonics hardware is powering ChatGPT and the AI revolution
The AI market is red hot in 2023, but for the technology to remain in high demand in the years ahead, it needs to deliver more efficient and affordable solutions. Photonics-enabled hardware is essential for this progress.
It's easy to argue the reason interest is exploding in AI this year is because of ChatGPT. The application is a “chatbot” with deep-learning abilities and can generate summaries for search queries presented in easy-to-read paragraph form, instead of returning pages of websites as a search engine would. It can also read spreadsheets and reply to questions related to these uploads, or analyze images, and much more. For many professions, its impact is already being felt.
Powered by fiber-optic communications
Programs such as ChatGPT and Google’s Bard rely on fiber-optic communications. Fiber-optic cables deliver data between servers located far apart from each other, so these cables transmit light signals in the form of photons. The light signals are then converted into electrical signals that can be processed by AI algorithms powering software applications.
Fiber-optic communications offers several advantages over traditional copper wire connections, including faster data transmission speeds and better resistance to interference from electromagnetic radiation. This feature is particularly important for AI programs, which require massive amounts of data to be transmitted and processed quickly.
Using light for data transmission through the cables is faster and consumes less power than other materials and, importantly, light generates less heat—by a factor of 10X—than electrons that go through copper wires. Most of the power of modern computing systems is wasted simply by moving data around.
Innovative hardware can solve this problem. Photonics lasers support the growth of AI applications because the light pulses that transmit data are encoded with information, which is then decoded at the receiving end using photo detectors. This feature enables high-speed transmission over long distances, making it ideal for applications like AI and large-scale data center architectures.
Beyond fiber-optic communications and lasers, photonics is also used in the development of specialized chips—including AI accelerator chips—and sensors that power AI programs. These components process and analyze data from various sources, including images, videos, and speech, which then helps the AI applications become smarter and more predictive.
