Last November, Google unveiled a prototype technology called RAISR that uses machine learning to make low-resolution images appear more detailed. Now, the company has begun the process of integrating RAISR with its online services, using the technology to upscale large images on Google+ and save users’ data in the process.

So far, RAISR is only being used to tweak high-resolution Google+ images accessed on a “subset of Android devices.” When a user requests an image, Google+ retrieves a version that’s actually a quarter of the size, using RAISR’s algorithms to “restore detail on [the] device.” Doing so reduces the data cost of each image by up to 75 percent, says Google. The technique is currently being applied to more than a billion…

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