Digital hoarding: How AI can help you delete all those unused files

Professor Ute Schmid sits at a laptop with her research assistant Sebastian Seufert. With her research team, the University of Bamberg professor has developed a system designed to help people delete unused data on their PCs. — dpa

It might be no trouble for your computer to store massive amounts of files, but it can be a major burden on your mind, the environment and your wallet. Researchers hope artificial intelligence will soon help digital hoarders to clean out their old files.

Our computers are packed full of unread mails, long forgotten files and old holiday photos. But somehow we just can't face deleting these kinds of files. They could be important – and who wants to delete a nice memory?