--- description: Find out why BrainBox AI is one of the best inventions of 2020. title: BrainBox AI: The 100 Best Inventions of 2020 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc1f213e38af6f65/698a144b97cdffeb276bb5e2/best-inventions-of-2020-BrainBox-2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 19, 2020 # Built for the Climate BrainBox AI by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Courtesy Five years ago, advances in autonomous cars inspired the founders of [BrainBox AI](https://www.brainboxai.com/ "undefined") to pursue a related goal: autonomous buildings. The company’s AI system uses data like weather forecasts to predict a building’s thermal conditions, then adjusts its AC or heating output accordingly. Launched last year, the technology now controls temperatures for more than 40 million sq. ft. of building space, helping reduce carbon footprints by as much as 20% to 40%. —Alejandro De La Garza ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2020/5911317/brainbox-ai/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2020/5911317/brainbox-ai/"},"headline":"Built for the Climate","datePublished":"2020-11-19T01:27:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:45:28.532Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2020/5911317/brainbox-ai/","keywords":["list","franchise","best inventions","Best Inventions 2020"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc1f213e38af6f65/698a144b97cdffeb276bb5e2/best-inventions-of-2020-BrainBox-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc1f213e38af6f65/698a144b97cdffeb276bb5e2/best-inventions-of-2020-BrainBox-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2020/5911317/brainbox-ai/","name":"Built for the Climate"}}]}] ```