Dr. Milan Delor of Columbia University will present the eighth Telluride Science Town Talk of the summer on Tuesday, July 29. His presentation, titled, “What if the Future of Computing isn’t Silicon?” will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Telluride Conference Center in Mountain Village. The event is free and open to the public.
Delor is an Assistant Professor in Columbia’s Department of Chemistry, where he leads the Delor Lab. His work aims to revolutionize the way energy and information are converted and transported in modern materials, with applications in solar energy, quantum devices, and optical sensing.
According to Delor, we have improved computing and computer technology as much as silicon will allow, and it’s time we turn to other materials. Delor’s group looks to improve the efficiency of computing and reduce AI’s environmental impact.
Every day, ChatGPT and other AI programs generate responses for millions of users. These responses make our lives easier, but they come at significant environmental cost.
In order to fulfill our requests, AI chatbots run thousands of calculations that generate heat in their silicon-based servers. The amount of water needed to cool down these super-hot servers quickly adds up. For example, a 100-word email produced by ChatGPT consumes over half a liter, or about as much as an average bottle of water.
That kind of water consumption doesn’t have to be the future of AI. In his Town Talk, Delor will preview the new materials in development that could build faster, more efficient computers without challenging our water supply and requiring enormous amounts of energy.
Materials like graphene, a form of graphite like what’s used in pencil lead, can be used as semiconductors and energy harvesters to allow computers to run at high speeds and low temperatures. Graphene is an extremely thin and conductive material that would allow scientists to build 2D semiconductors that could then be placed on top of one another. These layered semiconductors decrease the dissipation of energy that is so common with silicon-based computing.
These computers would transform the way we conduct research. No longer so costly and environmentally damaging, scientists could harness the power of AI to accelerate the pace of their research. AI is already helping research in fields like drug discovery, climate modeling, and astrophysics, but more efficient computing would unlock the potential of AI. Enormous data sets could be analyzed in the blink of an eye, repetitive and time-consuming experiments could be automated, and complex simulations could be modeled without great cost – financially or environmentally.
The 2025 Telluride Science Town Talks series is sponsored by Alpine Bank and the Telluride Mountain Village Owners’ Association. Talks will be held every Tuesday through Aug. 12.
Visit telluridescience.org to learn more about the Town Talks and the capital campaign in support of the Telluride Innovation Center, a permanent home for Telluride Science and a global hub of inspired knowledge exchange and development where great minds solve great challenges.