Alphabet-Led AI Project to Shield New Zealand Grid From Outages

A consortium of four utilities serving a quarter of New Zealand will join an Alphabet Inc.-led initiative that uses artificial intelligence to fortify the country’s grid against failures caused by extreme weather or earthquakes.

Northpower Ltd., Orion Group, Unison Networks Ltd. and WEL Networks Ltd. will share information about infrastructure networks with Tapestry, part of Alphabet Inc.’s moonshot factory, X, according to Page Crahan, the project’s general manager.

The consortium will build on models trained by Vector Ltd., the country’s largest utility, which became the first to adopt the AI tool five years ago. ...