Silver moves AI
German and Italian scientists have produced a memristive element! It’s a component whose electrical resistance changes with the amount of current flowing through those functions similarly to a biological nerve cell. This discovery will help advance the science of artificial intelligence (AI) as the element, produced from nanowires, will allow computers to more closely approximate the neural networks of human brains.
This could be a large step in the continuing development of artificial intelligence, and silver will play a key role!
The element relies on silver to join it to other components, because silver is one of the world’s best electrical conductors and is malleable enough to connect to the nanosized memristive element.
The researchers believe that memristive cells may have the best chance of mimicking the function of human neurons and synapses in what they call ‘bio inspired computers.’ In human neural networks, data is processed and stored at speeds too high for mechanical computer components to achieve.
This had led engineers to try and mimic human brain networks by using animal cells (like those from bacteria) which are able to not only store great amounts of data but also process this data very swiftly, often in parallel. This network has the advantage of not only high speed and high storage but allowing one network to substitute for another if it breaks down in similar fashion to the human brain.
“With today’s semiconductor technology, these functions are to some extent already achievable,” said Ilia Valov from Forschungszentrum Jülich, one of the largest interdisciplinary research centers in Europe. “These systems are, however, suitable for particular applications and require a lot of space and energy. Our nanowire devices made from zinc-oxide crystals can inherently process and even store information, as well as being extremely small and energy efficient.”
The nanowires are over a thousand times thinner than a human hair. Both ends of the nanowire must be attached to suitable metals, in this case platinum and silver. Because single nanowires are still too small to be of practical value, the team from Jülich and the Polytechnic University of Turin hope to produce a larger memristive element composed of a great number of nanowires.
