Secret HPE AI chip, TensorFlow updates, neural networks writing themselves – and more

Roundup It's been an interesting fortnight, sorry, two weeks in AI. In addition to what we've already reported, we have news about HPE developing what looks like a neural network accelerator chip, TensorFlow updates, Google's effort to teach software to make software, and other bits and pieces. The next biz in line claiming to be working on developing a fast custom-designed chip supposedly for neural networks is HPE. It was first reported on our sister site, The Next Platform, this week, although there are scant details on how the hardware works, its specs or even if it can deal with stuff like deep learning. That's mainly because our colleagues got wind of the secret R&D effort before it was due to be made public, and the enterprise IT giant is keeping schtum for now. The mysterious chip's "dot product engine" (DPE) architecture is apparently geared toward carrying out matrix operations at speed, which is useful for executing AI algorithms quickly.