AWS and Microsoft announce deep learning library Gluon

Microsoft and Amazon Web Services have joined forces to make machine learning accessible to a greater number of developers.

With that in mind, the duo has launched an open-source deep learning library called Gluon. The library will work as an interface where developers will be able to create prototypes, build, train and deploy ML models for either cloud or mobile apps.

In the joint press release, the two companies have said that Gluon is more concise and easier to understand, compared to competing programs. It also said prototyping will be faster, and developers will be able to test neural network models without having to sacrifice performance.

"Today's reality is that building and training machine learning models requires a great deal of heavy lifting and specialized expertise," said Swami Sivasubramanian, VP of Amazon AI. "We created the Gluon interface so building neural networks and training models can be as easy as building an app."

Currently, Gluon works with Apache MXNet. Support for Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit is expected in the near future. Models will be built through Python API, as well as a couple of pre-built neural network components.

"We believe it is important for the industry to work together and pool resources to build technology that benefits the broader community," added Eric Boyd, corporate VP of Microsoft AI and Research. "Machine learning has the ability to transform the way we work, interact and communicate. To make this happen we need to put the right tools in the right hands, and the Gluon interface is a step in this direction."

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