As Moore's Law slows, people are starting to look for alternatives to the silicon chips we've long been reliant on. A new optical switch up to 1,000 times faster than normal one day form the basis of new computers that use light rather than electricity. transistors could The attraction of optical computing is obvious.

Building a computer that can support artificial intelligence at the scale and complexity of the human brain will be a colossal engineering effort. Now researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have outlined how they think we'll get there.