How to Make Computers More like a Brain - Jack Kendall

Event: DSI Spring Symposium 2025

About the Talk:
This talk by Jack Kendall, CTO and co-founder of Rain AI, explores the future of energy-efficient AI hardware through the lens of brain-inspired computing. Unlike traditional computers that separate memory and processing (the von Neumann bottleneck), biological brains combine them, leading to greater energy efficiency and parallelism. Kendall presents analog and digital compute-in-memory approaches that perform matrix multiplications directly within memory arrays using physical laws like Ohm’s Law. These methods can significantly reduce computation time and energy consumption in AI workloads. He also introduces architectures for scalable, brain-like computation using emerging memory technologies like resistive RAM and 3D NAND flash, as well as biologically plausible learning algorithms that eliminate the need for backpropagation. The talk emphasizes the convergence of neuroscience and machine learning, and predicts that memory manufacturers integrating compute into high-bandwidth memory will drive the next wave of AI hardware innovation.

About the Speaker:
Jack Kendall is the Co-Founder and current CTO of Rain AI, a company building next-generation brain-inspired processors for artificial intelligence. Jack’s mission is to build a brain — bridging neuroscience, physics, and computing to reimagine how machines learn. His research includes highly cited papers on analog neural networks and neuromorphic architectures. Rain is backed by leading figures in AI, including Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI. Jack is a University of Florida alum and one of the original founders and the first official President of DSI, making his keynote today a full-circle moment for the community he helped shape. Please welcome, Jack Kendall.

About the Organizer:
DSI is a student-led club at the University of Florida. Our primary goal is to help fellow students learn more about data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning. While most of our events are in person (at the University of Florida), we make sure to post our recordings to our Youtube channel!