Posted on 09/11/2023 4:55:32 AM PDT by FarCenter
The large language models that enable generative artificial intelligence (AI) are driving an increase in investment and an acceleration of competition in the field of silicon photonics, a technology that combines silicon-based integrated circuits (ICs) and optical components to process and transmit massive amounts of data more efficiently.
Top-rank designers and manufacturers of ICs, AI systems and telecommunications equipment have all joined the race, including NVIDIA, TSMC, Intel, IBM, Cisco Systems, Huawei, NTT and imec, the Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre headquartered in Belgium.
These and other organizations have been working on silicon photonics for many years, some of them (including Intel and NTT) for nearly two decades.
On September 5, at the Silicon Photonics Global Summit in Taiwan, TSMC’s vice president in charge of pathfinding for system integration, Douglas Yu, told the Nikkei newspaper “If we can provide a good silicon photonics integration system … we can address both critical issues of energy efficiency and computing power for AI. This is going to be a new paradigm shift. We may be at the beginning of a new era.”
In its invitation to the Summit, semi (the microelectronics industry association) noted that “Silicon Photonics has become a prominent buzzword in the semiconductor industry” due to its high bandwidth, high-speed data transmission, extensive transmission distance, low power consumption and applicability to advanced networking, computing architectures, cloud computing, data centers, autonomous vehicles and smart transportation systems.
In other words, right across the leading edge, high-tech industry will benefit from silicon photonics in a way that will improve device and system performance while lowering energy consumption.
(Excerpt) Read more at asiatimes.com ...
AI is still and will always be artificial.
Will silicon photonics create free thinking AI?
Or maintain the current garbage in garbage out?
Read later.
Don’t underestimate the potential dangers of AI.
Right now, AI is in its infancy, if Quantum computing ever becomes commercially viable, combined with the power of AGI, you will have a force that is currently unthinkable.
The power to accomplish great things will be incredible, conversely the potential to create great evil will also be incredible.
It’s clear countries of the world and the largest technology companies around the world all think the same way about AGI and Quantum computing.
Artificial? So what?
Most humans beings are incapable of ANY kind of intelligence. They are irrational, illogical, and emotional.
Agreed.
That said, the uproar over AI is way overblown. AI will never have the imagination
some humans possess. AI in itself cannot be creative, only copy that what was/is.
We are in completely unknown terrain here. There is the possibility of us creating a threat, perhaps existential in nature. Tread slowly, tread carefully. But fools are rushing in where angels fear to tread.
I think you have hit the nail on the head.
Creativity (inspiration) is impossible to imagine at this point for an AI system.
In fact, I would suggest that humans don't actually know what "inspiration" is. Artists and creative writers cannot explain what happens when they are "moved by the spirit."
You probably knew this, but the word "inspiration" (Latin: inspirare, inspiratus) is traceable back to the idea of an indwelling spirit (i.e., God's breathing into us, or even the indwelling of another spirit--the word "spirit" itself being traced back to "breath").
Yeah, we’re most likely going to end up being controlled by HAL or the evil version of Data.
I wouldn’t underestimate the ability of AI to come up with original thought. Already in some fields, it’s producing ideas or possible solutions to problems not previously known.
Mentally ill humans programming AI, there will be no more finger pointing when the sh## hits the fan because AI will be responsible for the orders
I certainly don’t understand the technology behind current versions of AI and I certainly don’t understand the technology behind Quantum Computing.
What I do understand is that countries all over the world would not be pouring billions into the development of AI and Quantum Computing if they didn’t see the potential of the technologies.
From the articles I’ve read, Quantum Computing has the potential to be many thousands, if not million of times more powerful than current computer technology, that alone would be staggering to understand the impact.
If you then combined that type of technology with basically putting all the most advanced intelligence and technology into that machine, it could unlock things humans have never considered.
>>AI in itself cannot be creative, only copy that what was/is
Not true. Both Chess and Go playing AI have created strategies that were unknown to human masters of the two games.
One motivation for Quantum computing is that quantum computers would be able to break the encryption systems commonly used by protocols such as HTTPS.
If you think of AI systems as having three components — sensory system, intelligent processing, and actuation — then I think that the danger is mostly on the actuation side.
The sensory side is easily more advanced than human sensory systems in frequency range, accuracy, attention, etc.
I think that the intelligence of humans is exceeded in specialized cases and more and more in the general case.
Progress in the actuation side seems much slower, but this is where the real danger lies. I don’t see anything yet that beats cellular respiration for efficiency. Human bodies are very efficient at converting fairly small amounts of glucose to muscle energy.
Mechanical actuator seem very inefficient or they are highly specialized and immobile.
So for now, don’t count out the opposable thumb.
Gleeing for AI is like gleeing for Hitler.
All of these scenarios have been covered for decades by science fiction stories; it's odd to be living at a time which may prove to be the cusp of those dark dreams becoming reality.
Well, that worked well for the Chinese. They copy all the stuff westerners create, and become successful in selling inferior copied stuff. AI does not need to create, they only need imitate human behavior. That is the quest of those promoting AI, they create ever-faster computing machines that process tons of actual world scenarios in order to imitate.
Like that has any use in the real world.
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