Researchers have been trying to build artificial synapses for | Arm Me Against Uni(n)Formation

Researchers have been trying to build artificial synapses for years in the hope of getting close to the unrivaled computational performance of the human brain. A new approach has now managed to design ones that are 1,000 times smaller and 10,000 times faster than their biological counterparts. This is why the researchers have instead designed a component whose conductivity is regulated by the insertion or removal of protons into a channel made of phosphosilicate glass (PSG). To a certain extent, this mimics the behavior of biological synapses, which use ions to transmit signals across the gap between two neurons. So far, a lot of research has focused on designing “memristors”—electronic components that control the flow of current based on how much charge has previously flowed through the device. This mimics the way that connections between biological neurons increase or decrease in strength depending on the frequency with which they communicate, which means these devices could in principle be used to create networks with similar properties to biological neural networks. https://singularityhub.com/2022/08/01/mit-researchers-created-artificial-synapses-10000x-faster-than-biological-ones/