Microsoft And Meta Joins Google In Using AI for data centers

Data centers, which power the apps, websites, and services used by billions of people every day, can be dangerous workplaces for those who build and maintain them. Workers are occasionally required to service a data center’s electrical equipment while it is being energized. They may also be exposed to chemicals such as chlorine, which is used to sterilize the water circulated through liquid cooling systems for computers and servers. Five people were taken to the hospital in June 2015 after a chlorine gas leak at an Apple data center in Maiden, North Carolina.

Data centers are safer than they were previously. However, in search of innovative solutions, some tech titans have stated that they are investigating how AI can be used to prevent safety issues. Microsoft and Meta, for example, have joined Google in developing an AI system that analyses data from various sources and generates alerts for data centre construction and operations teams in order to “prevent or mitigate the impact of safety incidents.” A related but complementary system is also being developed to detect and predict impacts to data centre construction schedules.

“Both initiatives are in the early stages of testing and are expected to be implemented in our production environments later this year,”

Of course, companies have reasons other than safety to keep data centres in top shape. Meta operates more than 20 data centres around the world, including new projects in Texas and Missouri that are expected to cost $1.6 billion in total. Meanwhile, Microsoft manages more than 200 data centres and claims to be on track to build 50 to 100 new data centres per year for the foreseeable future.