Researchers At MIT Propose A New Method That Uses Optics To Accelerate Machine Learning Computations On Smart Speakers And Other Low-Power Connected Devices

Researchers have developed a new technique for performing computations straight on smart home gadgets. Their method moves the memory-intensive machine-learning model operations to a central server. The data is encoded onto light waves rather than sent hundreds of miles away from the device. Fiber optics is used to transfer the waves to a connected device, allowing massive amounts of data to be sent via a network at incredible speeds. The receiver then uses a specific optical device to quickly compute the model's components delivered by those light waves.