Last night I attended the Google Developer Group Reading & Thames Valley meetup. I don’t attend as often as I’d like, but this is a really nice meetup that often has interesting technical presentations.

Last night’s session was “TensorFlow with Laurence Moroney”, where Laurence Moroney (a Developer Advocate from Google) gave us an introduction to AI, Machine Learning, and some specifics around TensorFlow and TensorFlow Lite.

I really enjoyed the presentation. The content didn’t go massively deep on AI or Machine Learning, but it was a good introduction to the topic with some nice demos/examples that helped frame things.

I particularly liked Laurence’s closing comments. He made the point that as many parts of the tech industry turn to AI/ML, there are great opportunities for people to skill-up and to get a head-start. Doing so could also be a way for groups who are currently under-represented within the industry to break through “glass ceilings”.

Thanks to @GDRReading for organising a fun evening, and to @lmoroney for the presentation…and the round of beers at the pub after!