Novel AI framework runs on optical hardware

Researchers including a University of Tokyo team combined an SS-DFA training method with a simpler "single-map framework" architecture and demonstrated it in an optical computing system using a 200-meter optical fiber and few electronic components. The simplified design matched or in some tests outperformed more complex neural networks while requiring far less computation, measurement and data storage. The team says future work must test scaling to the largest AI models and address miniaturization, stability and large-scale manufacturing.