Microsoft has announced that Lobe, a machine learning tool that helps people apply deep learning and #AImodels quickly – without the need of writing code – into tools they are developing, is now available with image classification support. This essentially means that people can import images of the things they want Lobe to recognise, and the free app automatically selects the right machine learning architecture to begin training a machine learning model. The company says that it is making the app available today in public preview, and it can be downloaded on Windows or Mac computers for free.

“Lobe is taking what is a sophisticated and complex piece of technology and making it actively fun,” said Bill Barnes, manager for Lobe, which Microsoft acquired and began incubating in 2018. “What we find is that it inspires people. It fills them with confidence that they can actually use machine learning. And when you have confidence you become more creative and start looking around and asking ‘What other stuff can I do with this?’”

“Today, #Lobe supports image classification but plans to expand to other models and data types in the future,” Jennifer Langston, who writes about Microsoft research and innovation, said in a blog post. Lobe’s visual interface allows developers to create apps with features such as reading handwriting, recognising hand gestures, hearing music, etc. You can download Lobe for Windows and Mac from the Microsoft Lobe page.