Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit (CNTK) for Deep Learning

Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit (CNTK) is a production-grade, open-source, deep-learning library. In the spirit of democratizing AI tools, CNTK embraces fully open development, is available on GitHub, and provides support for both Windows and Linux. The recent 2.0 release (currently in release candidate) packs in several enhancements—most notably Python/C++ API support, easy-to-onboard tutorials (as Python notebooks) and examples, and an easy-to-use Layers interface. These enhancements, combined with unparalleled scalability on NVIDIA hardware, were demonstrated by both NVIDIA at SuperComputing 2016 and Cray at NIPS 2016. These enhancements from the CNTK supported Microsoft in its recent breakthrough in speech recognition, reaching human parity in conversational speech. The toolkit is used in all kinds of deep learning, including image, video, speech, and text data. The speakers will discuss the current features of the toolkit's release and its application to deep learning projects.