Deep Learning

In the age of Transformers and neural nets that write poetry, it’s tempting to assume deep learning dominates every corner of AI. But in quantitative investing, the roots tell a different story. A recent paper—QuantBench: Benchmarking AI Methods for Quantitative Investment1—delivers a grounded reminder: tree-based models still outperform deep learning (DL) methods across key financial prediction tasks. ...

Crunch Time for AI: Photonic Chips Enter the Menu In the diet of modern artificial intelligence, chips are the staple. For decades, CPUs, GPUs, and more recently TPUs, have powered the explosion of deep learning. But what if the future of AI isn’t just about faster silicon—it’s about harnessing the speed of light itself? Two recent Nature papers—Hua et al. (2025)1 and Ahmed et al. (2025)2—offer a potent answer: photonic computing is no longer experimental garnish—it’s becoming the main course. ...