Live data from Hacker News

TensorFlow 1.0 Released

developers.googleblog.com

51–60 of 76 posts

Re: TensorFlow 1.0 Released

#51
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll discuss this a bit during my talk at the dev summit. The short answer is no. The long answer is yes, but only if you create the model in Python, export it, and then feed training data in other languages. There are some people doing exactly that. Long term, I'd like to give all languages equal footing, but there's quite a bit of work left.

Forgive my ignorance, but why is it that it is Python-only? Does Python have intrinsic qualities that other languages don't possess or is it that the huge initial investment in creating TensorFlow was based on Python and duplicating that effort somewhere else would require too much work?

Traditionally, most neural network architectures have been implemented in C/C++ - for performance reasons. But ML researchers are not hackers, for the most part, and Python has the lowest impedence mismatch for interfacing with C/C++ of all the major languages. Julia was popular for a bit, but now Python is dominant. Programs tend to be very small, and not modular - so static type checking is less important than it would be in picking up errors in larger systems.

Re: TensorFlow 1.0 Released

#52
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll discuss this a bit during my talk at the dev summit. The short answer is no. The long answer is yes, but only if you create the model in Python, export it, and then feed training data in other languages. There are some people doing exactly that. Long term, I'd like to give all languages equal footing, but there's quite a bit of work left.

Forgive my ignorance, but why is it that it is Python-only? Does Python have intrinsic qualities that other languages don't possess or is it that the huge initial investment in creating TensorFlow was based on Python and duplicating that effort somewhere else would require too much work?

Yeah, essentially a lot of supporting libraries were written in Python at first, and they need to be ported to C++ to make other languages train.

Re: TensorFlow 1.0 Released

#54
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe there's bindings for: C++, Java, Rust, Haskell and Go.

To load graphs and run sessions. Constructing graphs is (still) another story.

Well there's Gorgonia[0] (shameless promo: I wrote it). It's like TF/Theano. I'm finishing up porting/upgrading the CUDA related code from the older version (long story short: I needed a dependency parser and so I hacked on CUDA stuff and now I'm paying the price for not properly engineering it)

[0]: https://github.com/chewxy/gorgonia

Re: TensorFlow 1.0 Released

#55
post #8

Amazing work; it makes using AI and Deep Learning accessible for everyone here really. If you haven't seen it check this out for an intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq2nnJ4g6N0 I wish AMD graphics cards were supported fully. I really think AMD should find a way to work with the Tensor Flow team on this...

It's worth pointing out Tensorflow is basically Google's clone of Theano, including a lot of the same design decisions. They've improved some things but it's not like Google handed us the secret to fire here. It's just a good implementation of the same things a lot of people have been working on for years.

TensorFlow is not a clone of Theano. It's based on the earlier Google's platform DistBelief, mostly known outside of Google as the engine behind 2012 Youtube cat videos paper. Like DistBelief, TensorFlow was designed from the ground up to be scalable across multiple nodes.

Theano, on the other hand, seems to be focused on the optimizations for the single machine, single GPU code. It only recently got the ability to run each function on a different GPU.

Re: TensorFlow 1.0 Released

#56
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth pointing out Tensorflow is basically Google's clone of Theano, including a lot of the same design decisions. They've improved some things but it's not like Google handed us the secret to fire here. It's just a good implementation of the same things a lot of people have been working on for years.

TensorFlow is not a clone of Theano. It's based on the earlier Google's platform DistBelief, mostly known outside of Google as the engine behind 2012 Youtube cat videos paper. Like DistBelief, TensorFlow was designed from the ground up to be scalable across multiple nodes. Theano, on the other hand, seems to be focused on the optimizations for the single machine, single GPU code. It only recently got the ability to r…

To be truthfully honest it doesn't matter either way or even if there is something "better" out there (if Theranos was...).

TensorFlow has already become the winner from my reading around it so I'm going to continue learning it rather than another framework until I've become fairly proficient. By which time why change?

Re: TensorFlow 1.0 Released

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forgive my ignorance, but why is it that it is Python-only? Does Python have intrinsic qualities that other languages don't possess or is it that the huge initial investment in creating TensorFlow was based on Python and duplicating that effort somewhere else would require too much work?

Traditionally, most neural network architectures have been implemented in C/C++ - for performance reasons. But ML researchers are not hackers, for the most part, and Python has the lowest impedence mismatch for interfacing with C/C++ of all the major languages. Julia was popular for a bit, but now Python is dominant. Programs tend to be very small, and not modular - so static type checking is less important than it w…

It's not just the lowest impedance mismatch, but it's also a framework coming out of google, where python and Java were really the only two language choices for a high level interface, and of the two python is the clear winner in prototyping / scientific community acceptance. I think it's because of the ease in experimentation and expressiveness of the language.

Re: TensorFlow 1.0 Released

#59

I stumbled across a three-chapter preview of the upcoming book Learning TensorFlow on Safari Books Online and went through them in a sitting. It was so accessible - both the book and TensorFlow itself - and inspired me to start learning math so that when the rest of the book comes out I will be better prepared to go deeper. I love learning in general, but haven't been this excited about learning something totally new…

Do you have a link to the said book?

Must be https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/learning-tens...

To be released in June.

Re: TensorFlow 1.0 Released

#60
post #10

How do I get started with machine learning? I have a couple of applications in mind, mostly time series predictions. But the machine learning field seems to be vast and I don't know where to start.

http://cs231n.github.io/ is a great site for beginners. I've been following the site along the Udacity Self Driving Car nanodegree. The CS231 material has helped me understand the concepts significantly. Edit: I should mention that the class mainly focuses on neural networks and image recognition. However, once you have the foundation, you can apply your skillset to a vast range of applications.

The Udacity ML course is gradual enough to avoid overwhelming you, but really in-depth: https://www.udacity.com/course/machine-learning--ud262

Definitely recommend that as a good starting point. Isbell and Littman can be a bit cheesy at points, but they're very clear and thorough.

Post reply on HN