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‘Only movies build bad robots’: Google makes machine-learning software TensorFlow open source in bid to boost AI industry

Alphabet chief executive Schmidt downplays fears of helping to build robot race that may one day go rogue, says new tools help make people smarter

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A still from the movie Terminator: Genisys. Alphabet’s Eric Schmidt said even kitchen-cleaning robots are a long way off, and that tools to boost AI now centre on internet-based services and information that helps make users smarter. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Google will make its machine-learning software TensorFlow available to the public as it hopes to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence, it said this week.

Machine learning is the core of AI. Computers can perform tasks like speech recognition, decision-making and other tasks related to visual perception.

A programme that uses machine learning can follow by example, and improves as more data is made available to it.

Google utilises machine learning in many of its services – including the automatic filtering of spam in Gmail and the search and classification features in Google Photos that automatically categorise pictures by location or people.

The reason for making one of Google’s core pieces of software open source and available to developers everywhere is to accelerate the evolution of AI, according to Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt.

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