Future Energy: The computer brains making power plants more efficient - BBC News

There are giant, complex machines out there that we all rely on. Without them, civilisation as we know it would collapse. But these machines - power stations - are often pretty dumb, according to Peter Kirk, former chief executive of software company NeuCo. "Power plants," he says, "are just robots that don't have a brain yet." That is where his firm, acquired by GE Power last year, comes in. For years, NeuCo had been developing optimisation technologies - a form of artificial intelligence or AI - that can make power plants more efficient.