RESEARCHERS at Shanghai Jiao Tong University have unveiled LightGen, a new computer chip that runs powerful AI programs using light instead of electricity. Detailed in a featured paper in the journal Science, this breakthrough could help solve the enormous energy and processing demands of modern generative AI — the technology used to create images, videos, and text.

Generative AI is taking on more complex tasks, but doing so requires massive computing power, leading to high energy consumption and slower speeds. LightGen addresses this through all-optical computing. Unlike conventional electronic chips, it processes information using pulses of light, which are inherently faster and can perform many calculations simultaneously.

While optical chips have been used before, they have largely been limited to simple recognition tasks. LightGen is the first such chip capable of running advanced generative models. Its design incorporates millions of “optical neurons” on a single chip and executes a full cycle — from input, to understanding, to generation — using only light, without electronic assistance.

This allows LightGen to perform high-complexity tasks, such as creating images, 3D objects, and high-definition video, by enabling light to effectively “understand” and manipulate meaning. The chip produces output comparable in quality to leading AI models like Stable Diffusion, but does so far more efficiently.

“The entire process — from receiving data and interpreting its meaning to generating new content — happens entirely with light,” explained lead researcher Chen Yitong. “This allows the chip to ‘comprehend’ information and produce new visuals directly.”

In testing, even using outdated supporting hardware, LightGen outperformed top electronic chips such as those from NVIDIA in both speed and energy efficiency — by a factor of 100. With modern equipment, performance improvements could theoretically reach millions of times greater.

As generative AI becomes more integrated into everyday tools, the need for faster, sustainable hardware grows more urgent. LightGen charts a path toward a future where advanced AI can be both powerful and practical — drastically reducing the carbon footprint of data centers and enabling new real-time creative applications.

“LightGen opens a new direction for AI,” Chen said, “one that is radically faster and far more energy-efficient.”

(SD-Agencies)