Microsoft launches Cognitive Toolkit 2.0 beta with Python support

Microsoft today is announcing the beta launch of version 2.0 of its open-source deep learning framework. Until now, the software has been called Computational Network Toolkit, or CNTK, but now Micorosft is changing the name to Cognitive Toolkit. Instead of just being accessible through the programming language C, Cognitive Toolkit now has native support for Python (specifically Python 3; Python 2 support is coming). The lack of Python has been the single biggest deficiency of Cognitive Toolkit, Microsoft chief speech scientist Xuedong Huang told VentureBeat in an interview. "That's why external adoption has been very small," Huang said.