This represents an improvement of more than three orders of magnitude on electronic neural network performance. They also speculate on the possibility of integrating both the laser and external cavity on a single chip, using an optically addressed spatial light modulator to allow the output of a laser network to be input to another, and the possibility of manipulating a hundred laser modes in a single laser. But though they have demonstrated an interesting device, one which may well have some of the potential that they claim for it, they have failed to answer some major questions about how these neurons will work as parts of systems. That they haven't solved these problems says nothing bad about the quality of their work so far. It's just that there's more to designing a really good neural network than simply designing a really good neuron.
Figures courtesy IEEE from the reference below.
Sunny Bains is a technical journalist based in Edinburgh, Scotland.