Thermodynamic Computing Slashes AI-Image Energy Use
IEEE Spectrum AI
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Machine Learning
Generative AI
Generative AI tools such as DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion create photorealistic images. However, they burn lavish amounts of energy. Now a pair of studies finds that “ thermodynamic computing ” might generate images using one ten-billionth the energy. At the heart of many AI image generators are machine learning algorithms known as diffusion models. Programmers feed the models large sets of images to which they gradually add noise until they resemble the static on a poorly tuned analog television.