Thousands of undeclared private swimming pools in France are uncovered using AI technology

France experienced its worst drought on record last month, and officials have since been cracking down on conserving water. Now a new artificial intelligence (AI) technology could be added to their arsenal, after it successfully uncovered 20,356 illegally-built private swimming pools. The country's tax authority announced yesterday that the system allowed it to collect about €10 million (£8.5 million) from homeowners who failed to report the facilities. Developed by Google and Capgemini, the AI software was trained to spot pools in aerial images of nine French departments. The results of a trial run last October were then cross-checked with land registry databases, before Direction generale des Finances Publiques (DGFiP) took action.