How Can AI Researchers Save Energy? By Going Backward. | Quanta Magazine

This loss is a fundamental aspect of how computers operate. For example, when a computer adds two numbers together, it returns a single number for the total: 2 + 2 = 4. There’s a loss of information as you go from two numbers to one. You could have added 2 and 2, or you could have combined 1 and 3. The missing information makes the calculation irreversible. Computers that process information this way — and almost all of them do — are always going to lose some information as heat,…