Google's Open Source AI Engine, TensorFlow, Points to a Fast-Changing Hardware World

In open sourcing its artificial intelligence engine--freely sharing one of its most important creations with the rest of the Internet--Google showed how the world of computer software is changing. These days, the big Internet giants frequently share the software sitting at the heart of their online operations. Open source accelerates the progress of technology. In open sourcing its TensorFlow AI engine, Google can feed all sorts of machine-learning research outside the company, and in many ways, this research will feed back into Google. But Google's AI engine also reflects how the world of computer hardware is changing.