Introducing TensorFlow,
the Android of AI

Google is announcing TensorFlow, its open ­source platform for machine learning, giving anyone a computer and internet connection (and casual background in deep learning algorithms) access to one of the most powerful machine learning platforms ever created.

More than 50 Google products have adopted TensorFlow to harness deep learning (machine learning using deep neural networks) as a tool, from identifying you and your friends in the Photos app to refining its core search engine. Google has become a machine learning company. Now they’re taking what makes their services special, and giving it to the world.

TensorFlow is a library of files that allows researchers and computer scientists to build systems that break down data, like photos or voice recordings, and have the computer make future decisions based on that information. This is the basis of machine learning: computers understanding data, and then using it to make decisions. When scaled to be very complex, machine learning is a stab at making computers smarter.

But no matter how well a machine may complement or emulate the human brain, it doesn’t mean anything if the average person can’t figure out how to use it. That’s Google’s plan to dominate artificial intelligence—making it simple as possible. While the machinations behind the curtains are complex and dynamic, the end result are ubiquitous tools that work, and the means to improve those tools if you’re so inclined.