Microsoft Corp. today released a free desktop application called Lobe that lets Windows and Mac users create customized artificial intelligence models without writing any code.

The app is already being used by several customers for tasks such as tracking tourist activity around coral reefs, the company said.

Lobe is based on technology that Microsoft obtained in 2018 after buying a deep learning startup of the same name. On launch, the app enables users to build image classification models that identify specific objects or actions in photos. Microsoft said that future releases will add support for other kinds of neural networks.

To create an AI in Lobe, users must first upload a collection of images to serve as the training dataset. Lobe analyzes the images and then sifts through a built-in library of neural network architectures to find the model that’s most suitable for processing the dataset. It then trains the model on the data, creating an AI optimized to scan images for the specific object or action specified by the user.

The nonprofit Nature Conservancy used Lobe to create an AI that analyzes photos taken by tourists in the Caribbean to identify where and when visitors interact with coral reefs. Sincro LLC, a Seattle auto marketing firm, has developed a model that scans vehicle images in online ads to filter out photos that are less likely to appeal to buyers.

“We really want to empower more people to leverage machine learning and try it for the first time,” said Jake Cohen, a senior program manager for Lobe. “We want them to be able to use it in ways that they either could not before or didn’t realize they could before.”

Lobe is a new spin on a technology known as AutoML that has been available to enterprises for some time now via the public cloud. AutoML tools automate parts and, in some cases, most of the machine learning creation workflow to reduce development costs. Microsoft Corp. offers AutoML features in its Azure public cloud, as do Amazon Web Services Inc. and Google LLC.

Lobe takes the idea of making AI development more accessible one step further by making it free. It gives Microsoft a way to support relatively simple use cases that aren’t as well-addressed by the existing AI tools in Azure, which target more advanced projects. Lobe could also serve as a convenient, affordable prototyping tool for Azure customers before they deploy their models onto the cloud platform.

Lobe is currently in preview. 

Image: Microsoft