Google unleashes DeepMind on energy-hungry data center, cutting cooling bill by 40%

DeepMind may be a master at one of the most complex games on Earth, but can it handle the day-to-day energy concerns of a Google data center? Yes, as it turns out, and with a vengeance. The power needs of a data center depend on lots of factors, from demand to the weather, and adjusting to or predicting these variables in order to achieve maximal power efficiency can be difficult indeed. Google has been applying machine learning to the problem, building a neural model with which its AI can keep all these factors in mind, so to speak. The researchers finally let DeepMind loose on a live data center -- and the results were immediately validating.