The Agoracom profanity filter won't allow me to post the following so I figured you guys wouldnot mind me using this forum to link my message.
In terms of market. CAI is but one path. As an example:
Photonic Memory demonstration using the POET platform.
I don’t recall if I posted the following response I received when I asked SV about real world applications associated with the above.
With the advent of AI, there is a new class of computation algebra using matrices. Linear algebra or matrix multiplication is particularly amenable to using photonics for computation. Several companies have been formed with the primary intent to implement the neural network or neurons using photonics. The issue is that the contents of the matrix must be stored in memory and there is no memory in photonics. Consequently, each photonics neuron would need access to a memory cell (which would be on separate electronics die) - dramatically increasing the number of optical-electrical and electrical-optical interfaces.
I would say that most of the companies originally formed with the intent of implementing a completely photonics neural network have since pivoted to supporting data transmission (versus computing) and this includes all the popular AI start-up companies in the news.
The ability to create a completely photonics-based neuron implies that one could implement a true photonics compute-in-memory system helping with power dissipation and latency.