MIT's Picture language could be worth a thousand lines of code

Now that machine-learning algorithms are moving into mainstream computing, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is preparing a way to make it easier to use the technique in everyday programming. In June, MIT researchers will present a new programming language, called Picture, that could radically reduce the amount of coding needed to help computers recognize objects in images and video. It is a prototype of how a relatively novel form of programming, called probabilistic programming, could reduce the amount of code needed for such complex tasks. In one test of the new language, the researchers were able to cut thousands of lines of code in one image recognition program down to fewer than 50. With probabilistic programming, "we're building models of what faces look like in general, and use them to make pretty good guesses about what face we're seeing for the first time," said Josh Tenenbaum, an MIT professor of computational cognitive science who assisted in the work.