Taichi uses less energy

Neural networks that imitate the workings of the human brain now often generate art, power computer vision, and drive many more applications. 

Now a neural network microchip from China that uses photons instead of electrons, dubbed Taichi, can run AI tasks as well as its electronic counterparts with a thousandth as much energy, according to a new study.

AI typically relies on artificial neural networks in applications such as analyzing medical scans and generating images. 

In these systems, circuit components called neurons—analogous to neurons in the human brain—are fed data and cooperate to solve a problem, such as recognizing faces. Neural nets are dubbed “deep“ if they possess multiple layers of these neurons.