Google's machine learning software TensorFlow goes open source

NEW DELHI: Artificial intelligence (AI) seems to be getting hotter in Silicon Valley. Just every company from Facebook to Google and Apple to Microsoft appear to be betting big on the technology.

Close on the heels of Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer sharing the company's latest efforts on AI front, comes Google announcment that it is open-sourcing its machine learning software. This means just like Android, Google's machine learning software too will be available freely to outside developers.

The new machine learning system called 'TensorFlow' can run on a single smartphone or across thousands of computers in datacenters. Google claims, 'TensorFlow' is faster, smarter, and more flexible than its old system.

"We use TensorFlow for everything from speech recognition in the Google app, to Smart Reply in Inbox, to search in Google Photos. It allows us to build and train neural nets up to five times faster than our first-generation system, so we can use it to improve our products much more quickly," said the company in a blog post.

"We've seen firsthand what TensorFlow can do, and we think it could make an even bigger impact outside Google. So today we're also open-sourcing TensorFlow. We hope this will let the machine learning community—everyone from academic researchers, to engineers, to hobbyists—exchange ideas much more quickly, through working code rather than just research papers. And that, in turn, will accelerate research on machine learning, in the end making technology work better for everyone," adds the post.

Recently, Google announced it has started using machine learning in inbox with a feature called Smart Reply. The feature is the latest example of Google's effort to teach machines how to take over some of the tasks typically handled by humans. The search gaint has also been using an artificial intelligence programme called "RankBrain" to help determine the pecking order in its influential internet search results.

Source : The Times Of India - Tech.