Companies will use AI to stamp out electricity theft

Switching to efficient artificial intelligence systems has already saved Google a ton of money on its energy bills. And, it seems machine learning may also pose monetary benefits (of a different kind) for electricity providers. With power theft costing the industry roughly $96 billion in losses per year, companies could start looking to AI to help identify pilferers. A team from the University of Luxembourg has developed an algorithm that sifts through electricity meter data to detect abnormal usage. They put the system to work on info compiled from 3.6 million Brazilian households over the course of five years.