Artificial synapse uses light-color programming for brain-like balanced learning (opens in new tab)

The human brain actively keeps "learning" in balance by holding on to what matters and letting go of what does not. Researchers in Korea have now reproduced this ability in a semiconductor device, using the color of light to strengthen (remember) or weaken (forget) an artificial synapse's memory. Remarkably, the key ingredient is a material "defect" that engineers usually try to eliminate. The study appears in Nature Communications.