back to article Photonics startup Luminous Computing bags $105m

Luminous Computing, a startup using photonics to drive artificial intelligence, has raised venture capital backing, pulling in $105m in Series A funding from a range of investors that includes Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. The Bay Area upstart, founded in 2018, announced the funding round, which included such firms as …

  1. Headley_Grange Silver badge

    After glancing at the headling in the RSS feed and clicking the link, I was honestly expecting glow-in-the-dark messenger bags. I'm a bit disappointed now.

    1. Francis Boyle Silver badge

      Well, after reading the lede I was expecting an emergency medical hologram so I'm more disappointed.

  2. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Let me count the ways to skin a RAT

    "AI has become superhuman," Marcus Gomez, CEO and co-founder of Luminous, said in a statement. "We can interact with computers in natural language and ask them to write a piece of code or even an essay, and the output will be better than most humans could provide. What's frustrating is that we have the software to address monumental, revolutionary problems that humans can't even begin to solve. We just don't have the hardware that can run those algorithms."

    ....... has a Big Brother Mirror and AI Parallel in ......

    Is there nobody advising/showing them what to do, and what can be so easily done, with all these new fangled and entangling virtual tools at everyone’s disposal to halt and reverse the diabolical decline and destroy and root out the rot to its very core ‽ . ...... https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2022/03/03/telco_security_regulations_dcms_consultation/#c_4423269

    Obviously that fundamentally disagrees with the premise that hardware is not available for superhuman use of AI software. Such though only requires the most modest of practical physicalised demonstrations to eradicate any terrifying doubt ....... and one supposes, coincidentally, introduce even further terrifying worries for systems commanded and controlled by intellectually challenged humans intent on plunging foreign nations into the creation and endless payment and selling of debt and deficit spending.

    1. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
      Alien

      Re: Let me count the ways to skin a RAT

      Awesome, now we just need Clausewitz 4.0 and bombastic bob to weigh in.

  3. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
    Meh

    [citation needed]

    "We can interact with computers in natural language and ask them to write a piece of code or even an essay, and the output will be better than most humans could provide."

    This assertion is semantically accurate, insofar as most humans don't know how to code, so even a crappy algorithm will probably do a better job, but how does the algorithm perform against a skilled human, and are the essays anything more than semantically-null gibberish? As far as the "natural language" interaction is concerned, "NO, IT'S PRONOUNCED RAYMOND LUXURY YACHT, YOU STUPID MACHINE!"

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The optics of optical computing

    "We can interact with computers in natural language and ask them to write a piece of code or even an essay, and the output will be better than most humans could provide."

    The secret to success is to set the bar very, very low, but keep the optics very, very bright.

  5. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Denying it is all that IT and AI need to never be bettered/led astray and up Perfumed Garden Paths.

    The secret to success is to set the bar very, very low, but keep the optics very, very bright. ...... Anonymous Coward

    That may very well have been the secret to easy success in the past, AC, but things are somewhat different these days with so much more readily available information and intelligence to prepare and clear new paths with such a vast array of spooky entangling 0days to react to and challenge/engage/employ/enjoy

    The earlier optics of Overton windows gives one a very blinkered view ......

    In 1998, Noam Chomsky said: "The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum—even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.” .

    .... but AR goggles change all of that way beyond status quo grasp and recognition.

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