AI reveals 1,000 'dark discharges' of untreated sewage in England

Paper says machine learning could prove crucial tool in efforts to improve quality of country's rivers

Nearly 1,000 dark discharges" of untreated sewage from two water company treatment plants in England have been detected by scientists using artificial intelligence to map spills.

The use of machine learning to shine a light on the scale of pollution from untreated effluent being spilled into rivers could be a crucial tool in efforts to improve the quality of rivers, a paper says.