An international research effort is mobilising to develop chips with the potential to reduce the energy consumption of artificial intelligence (AI) datacentres by using light instead of electricity to process information.
The work is being pioneered by a team of scientists from Europe and South Korea, working together as the Haetae consortium, who have already received €1.49m in funding from the European Union (EU) to financially support their work.
According to the group, the chips they have under development could be up to 10 times more energy efficient than what is currently available, and could pave the way for faster, greener and more secure cloud and digital services in the years to come.
“By using light rather than electricity to perform calculations, we can make AI dramatically faster and far more energy-efficient, while opening the door to entirely new computing capabilities,” said Haetae project coordinator Miltiadis Moralis. “To put it simply, if we think of today’s AI hardware as a steam engine, this new photonics technology has jet propulsion.”
This is because light, in the form of photons, can travel at high speed and generate far less heat than relying on electrons to do the same job, said Moralis, adding: “Photonics offers a way to keep digital services improving without driving energy consumption through the roof.
“For everyday users, this could translate into faster and more responsive AI services, from digital assistants to real-time translation and search; lower energy bills and reduced environmental impact, as datacentres consume less electricity; and improved digital healthcare, transport and communication systems, powered by ultra-efficient AI.”
And this is important, as outlined by the organisation, because the energy demands of AI workloads at a datacentre level are rising rapidly and are putting increasingly high pressure on the continent’s energy grids.
According to long-term modelling by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and think tank Europa in its Powering the future – A vision for Europe’s energy system in 2050 report, the growing demand for digital services across the continent will require huge investments in energy generation and network capacity.
Europe alone will need to dramatically generate more electricity, embark on a massive renewable expansion and have a far smarter grid by 2050 to meet rising digital and industrial demand, the report claims.
There is also significance about this work being a joint research venture between groups of scientists from Europe and South Korea, with the former group bringing its knowledge and experience in photonics to bear on the latter group’s strength in semi-conductor manufacturing, said Moralis.
“Future computing will be built through international collaboration. This partnership allows Europe and South Korea to combine complementary strengths and push the boundaries of what AI hardware can achieve,” he said.
A major share of the project’s European research contribution is being led out of Greece, said Moralis, due to the country’s leading position in photonics, optical computing and advanced semiconductor research.
“Greece has become one of Europe’s most dynamic centres for photonics and optical computing research,” he said. “Haetae reflects how European innovation can thrive through strong academic foundations combined with deep international collaboration.”
