AI for Energy: A Huge Opportunity, but Still Early Days

When Chris Shelton, chief technology officer for electricity giant AES, takes the stage at a tech conference in San Francisco this week, he'll be the rare name in energy. The rest of the lineup looks more like traditional Silicon Valley tech: Google, Nvidia, Facebook and others. Shelton is headed to San Francisco for the AI Summit to talk about what he described to GTM as "one of the most exciting things out there" -- which is how the energy sector will be using artificial intelligence. Though, Shelton contends, it's still early days when it comes to how the sector will embrace AI in practice. According to Shelton, AES is exploring how AI can improve awareness, efficiency and maintenance of the company's grid systems and assets like solar farms and gas plants.