TensorFlow For Dummies

Chapter 1

Introducing Machine Learning with TensorFlow

IN THIS CHAPTER

Looking at machine learning over time

Exploring machine learning frameworks

TensorFlow is Google’s powerful framework for developing applications that perform machine learning. Much of this book delves into the gritty details of coding TensorFlow modules, but this chapter provides a gentle introduction. I provide an overview of the subject and then discuss the developments that led to the creation of TensorFlow and similar machine learning frameworks.

Understanding Machine Learning

Like most normal, well-adjusted people, I consider The Terminator to be one of the finest films ever made. I first saw it at a birthday party when I was 13, and though most of the story went over my head, one scene affected me deeply: The heroine calls her mother and thinks she’s having a warm conversation, but she’s really talking to an evil robot from the future!

The robot wasn’t programmed in advance with the mother’s voice or the right sequence of phrases. It had to figure these things out on its own. That is, it had to analyze the voice of the real mother, examine the rules of English grammar, and generate acceptable sentences for the conversation. When a computer obtains information from data without receiving precise instructions, ...