An all-optical AI chip outruns Nvidia by 100x
Researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong and Tsinghua University just unveiled LightGen, an all-optical chip designed for generative AI. In image generation and style transfer tasks, it clocks speeds and energy efficiency over 100 times better than Nvidia's A100 GPU by processing data entirely with light and metasurfaces. Why it matters: generative inference is becoming an unsustainable power drain, and photonic computing offers a radical way out—though LightGen still relies on bulky lab lasers before it can see real-world silicon.