Germany's and Europe's leading real-estate service provider Apleona is investing in a self-learning technology based on artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of energy and CO2 optimization. The company, which specializes in integrated facility and real-estate management, has therefore acquired an interest in Bonn-based green tech company Recogizer. Recogizer uses its "energyControl" AI system to create digital twins of buildings and their technical facilities, enabling fully automated predictive control of heating, ventilation and air conditioning technology in real time, all while predicting and taking into account the environmental conditions and usage parameters of each building. This achieves average energy savings of 20% to 30% and a comparatively large reduction in CO2 depending on the energy supply situation. At the same time, this smart system ensures a comfortable and ideal room climate for the user; one that is not affected by short-term changes in weather, the way the building is used or how much time the user spends there.

DeepMind Technologies, an artificial intelligence (AI) company based in London (U.K.) that was purchased by Google in 2014, recently announced that it is applying its machine learning algorithms to Google data centers to reduce the amount of energy dedicated to cooling by as much as 40 percent.

Whether you use Cortana, Siri, or Ok Google, your smartphone or computer's ability to recognize your voice and answer your questions is a function of deep learning. The software has been trained to recognize the myriad ways a word can be pronounced, then understand the various types of questions that might be asked, and to provide an appropriate answer to meet your needs. Using data about when your home needs light, temperature adjustments, and more, smart home technology allows customers to reduce energy usage and save money. When combined with voice recognition tools, smart homes can have profound applications for disabled consumers. If you take pictures on your smartphone and store them in various cloud applications, you may have already encountered apps that will sort and organize albums based on various features.