information technology
Researcher: Using AI to extend the life of electric car batteries
AI expert at the Hasso Plattner Institute: Ralf Herbrich. photo
© Jens Kalaene/dpa
Artificial intelligence tools will influence the working world of many people. A renowned AI expert also sees possible uses in the fight against climate change and to save energy.
From the perspective of researcher Ralf Herbrich, artificial intelligence (AI) will also play a greater role in climate protection and e-mobility in the future. The AI expert at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam is working on making electric car batteries more durable and improving the environmental balance. AI also has great benefits for the environment and to live more sustainably, said Herbrich of the German Press Agency in Potsdam.
AI-supported control systems should help to ensure that batteries for e-cars or laptops can be used for longer. Today, algorithms controlled the charging and discharging of individual battery cells to make the entire battery safe. In the future, however, these algorithms should also be able to extend the service life of the entire battery through targeted load distribution across individual battery cells, explained the computer scientist. “These programs are running on very small computers.” In the end, with better battery longevity, less lithium mining is needed and fewer new battery cells need to be made.
A lot of vision
“It’s an exciting idea. There’s a lot of vision involved,” said the professor in Potsdam. It usually takes a few years of research and the technology transfer process before the results are practically applicable. “Right now I’m working at the beginning of this process.” The 48-year-old has been building up the AI and sustainability department at the Hasso Plattner Institute and the University of Potsdam since 2022. Previously he worked for Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon and Zalando.
But artificial intelligence itself is also an energy guzzler. In order to train them, large amounts of data are required and energy consumption is high, explained Herbrich, who is researching more energy-efficient algorithms. In the meantime, there is no longer any doubt “that algorithms can see as well as humans, hear just as well and can also write texts.” The task now is to find out whether they could also do this with the same energy consumption as the human brain. The text robot ChatGPT, for example, currently requires many times the energy that the brain needs.