Are machines the better energy providers?

At the beginning of this year, an IT system called “Libratus”, based on artificial intelligence, beat four world-class players at poker. Long before this, chess-playing machines have already proven themselves superior to their human opponents. But it is not only the domain of games that is being taken over by artificial intelligence.

In other facets of our lives, too, intelligent machines are making headway. Robots vacuum the house and mow the lawn by themselves. Digital assistants with pleasant-sounding names provide us with information or take care of our menial tasks. Logistics systems automatically re-order products, which are delivered by drones.

Self-driving cars, machines that perform transactions entirely independently, chatbots serving in customer communication – all this is just the beginning. The number of machine-controlled digital processes continues to rise. According to analysis by Oxford University, autonomous robots will have a significant impact on up to 50 percent of all existing jobs in the next 50 years. This means that it is high time for me to address the “machine economy” in an article.

Machine economy – old wine in new bottles?

The term “machine economy” might sound a little puzzling at first. After all, machines have been used in industry since the invention of the steam engine, and have given us unparalleled economic and social progress. This is now being spurred on once again in the fourth industrial revolution. This fourth revolution allows machines to connect in digital networks as they become ever more intelligent.

Without relying on humans to operate them, machines are now able to function autonomously, communicate with one another independently, process data or other goods and make decisions by themselves – often with better results than we humans could produce. Considering the rapid pace of technological development, it is not inconceivable that machines will soon become economically self-supporting micro-enterprises with their own profit and loss statements.

“Digitalisation first, hesitation second”

Machines with equal rights to market participation – this vision may seem a rather frightening prospect to many people. Could machines gain power over entire economies? Can they still be controlled effectively or are they going to slip out of our control? What if, for example, algorithms that can no longer be contained throw our stock exchanges into chaos?

I have just come back from a tour of Silicon Valley with some journalists. Even in the mecca of technology worshippers, critical voices are being raised against the machine economy. Among them is Elon Musk, who describes artificial intelligence as our “greatest existential threat”, with which we are “summoning the demon”. I do not share such misgivings. The decisive factor is how we work together with machines and what we use them for.

It’s in our hands to determine how much autonomy we endow them with. The machines must work for us, rather than making us work for them. It is therefore a matter of organising the cooperation between humans and machines to suit our purposes. We should contemplate the countless possibilities that are associated with digital technology – obviously without turning a blind eye to the risks or ethical considerations. For this reason, we have established the IPRIZE at innogy, which was awarded for the first time this year.

This prize is awarded for solutions for an ethical machine economy – such as the OWN platform at Own.Space, which brings together people and virtual agents to form innovative hybrid teams. With methods using artificial intelligence, OWN visually combines different data sources, which can be used to assist the police, for example, when investigating complex cases. This is a new type of collaboration that frees people up so that they can concentrate on the important aspects of their job with more information at their command, thanks to artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence – basis for the energy system of the future

Regardless of our personal opinion on intelligent machines, their advance is unstoppable. More and more tasks are being delegated to machines. The energy system of the future will not function without artificial intelligence. I am convinced that machines will provide the basis for a sustainable, decentralized and decarbonized energy system.

There is simply no other way to distribute the energy from hundreds of thousands of solar power plants while interacting with increasing numbers of prosumers (consumers who are also producers). Smart technologies will not just change the face of energy supply. Machines will come to represent their own customer group, whose requirements we must understand in order to offer them appropriate solutions.

innogy on the way to the matrix?

Price erosion and decentralisation will lead to the demise of energy providers as we know them today. One option for future development is to become an energy bank that enables users to exchange energy, thereby providing the infrastructure for the machine economy. innogy already offers a number of such innovative solutions. With Share&Charge, private individuals can earn money by making their EV charging station available to other drivers via a simple App.

With Conjoule, we provide users with a simple means of exchanging energy in their neighbourhood, which we intend to develop into the decentralised electricity market of the future. These are just two examples that demonstrate our truly pioneering role in the application of artificial intelligence in the energy industry.

Are machines the better energy providers? What kind of significance will artificial intelligence have for the energy system of the future? Join the discussion!