Google puts AI in charge of data center cooling systems

Artificial intelligence (AI) is running one of Google's data centers -- or at least the cooling system in said data center. Today in a blog post, the Mountain View, California company said that it has turned over management of cooling controls to an AI-powered recommender system it jointly developed with DeepMind, its U.K.-based AI research subsidiary. Google claims it's the first fully autonomous model of its kind. "We wanted to achieve energy savings with less operator overhead," Dan Fuenffinger, a data center operator at Google, said. "Automating the system enabled us to implement more granular actions at greater frequency, while making fewer mistakes."