Hardware
GPU Data Centers Strain Grid Power: AI's electricity demands spur an expansion of power sources.
The AI boom is taxing power grids and pushing builders of data centers to rethink their sources of electricity.
Energy
Machine Learning Research
Energy-Efficient Cooling: Google's DeepMind algorithms dramatically boost energy efficiency in commercial buildings.
A reinforcement learning model maintains cooler temperatures in large data centers and other buildings.
Business
Digging for Green Tech: How KoBold Metals uses AI to find rare minerals
The metals needed to meet rocketing demand for electric cars and renewable power plants are in short supply. A startup is using machine learning to discover new sources.
Tech & Society
Wind in the Forecast: AI Tool Predicts Wind Turbine Energy Output
Machine learning is making wind power more predictable. Engie SA, a multinational energy utility based in France, is the first customer for an AI-powered tool from Google that predicts the energy output of wind farms.
Science
High-Energy Deep Learning: Machine learning helps stabilize nuclear fusion.
Nuclear fusion technology, long touted as an unlimited source of safe, clean energy, took a step toward reality with a machine learning algorithm that molds the fuel in a reactor’s core.
Machine Learning Research
Weak Foundations Make Weak Models: Foundation AI Models Pass Flaws to Fine-Tuned Variants
A new study examines a major strain of recent research: huge models pretrained on immense quantities of uncurated, unlabeled data and then fine-tuned on a smaller, curated corpus.
Science
Getting a Charge From AI: How battery developers are using AI
Machine learning is helping to design energy cells that charge faster and last longer. Battery developers are using ML algorithms to devise new chemicals, components, and charging techniques faster than traditional techniques allow.
Business
AI in Regions Rich and Poor: How companies in Africa and the Middle East use AI
Companies in Africa and the Middle East are building AI capacity in very different ways, a new study found. AI is growing fast in both regions despite shortages of talent and data.
Tech & Society
Do Oil and Algorithms Mix?: Amazon, Google, and Microsoft built AI tools for big oil.
Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are developing machine learning tools for the fossil fuel industry even as they pledge to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
Business
Business Pushes the Envelope: The trends shaping AI in 2020
The business world continues to shape deep learning’s future. Commerce is pushing AI toward more efficient consumption of data, energy, and labor, according to a report on trends in machine learning from market analyst CB Insights.
Business
Solar Power Heats Up: How solar thermal plants use AI to maximize energy output
Solar-thermal power plants concentrate the sun’s energy using huge arrays of mirrors. AI is helping those arrays stay in focus.