Google has hired former Apple star engineer Chris Lattner. Lattner’s name is legendary among Apple programmers for having developed the open-source Swift programming language. His work at Cupertino was a game changer for developers, and it looks like Google is looking to add that level of talent to its own research efforts.
Lattner joins Google after a brief stint six month at Tesla, where he was in charge of developing the autopilot feature for the cars. He failed to get along with owner Elon Musk, and the two quickly agreed that it would be beneficial for both to part ways.
Nobody is expecting a massive upheaval when Lattner begins his work at Google Brain; Alphabet’s research arm. He is, however, expected to be improving TensorFlow – Google’s system for simplifying AI programming.
TensorFlow lies at the heart of Google’s AI efforts, and is available for free. Regular consumers are unlikely to come into contact with TensorFlow, but it is becoming increasingly important for Google’s work behind the scenes. For instance, the system is being used to improve Google’s translations through machine learning.
[Source: Bloomberg]
