ML.

NET
ML.NET is a free software machine learning library for the C#
ML.NET
and F# programming languages.[4][5][6] It also supports Python
models when used together with NimbusML. The preview
release of ML.NET included transforms for feature engineering
like n-gram creation, and learners to handle binary classification,
multi-class classification, and regression tasks.[7] Additional ML
tasks like anomaly detection and recommendation systems have
since been added, and other approaches like deep learning will
be included in future versions.[8][9]
Original author(s) Microsoft

Machine learning Developer(s) .NET Foundation

Initial release 7 May 2018[1]
ML.NET brings model-based Machine Learning analytic and Stable release 2.0.1 /
prediction capabilities to existing .NET developers. The 10 February
framework is built upon .NET Core and .NET Standard 2023
inheriting the ability to run cross-platform on Linux, Windows
and macOS. Although the ML.NET framework is new, its Preview release 3.0.0-
origins began in 2002 as a Microsoft Research project named preview.22621.2
TMSN (text mining search and navigation) for use internally / 22 December
within Microsoft products. It was later renamed to TLC (the 2022
learning code) around 2011. ML.NET was derived from the
Repository github.com
TLC library and has largely surpassed its parent says Dr. James
/dotnet
McCaffrey, Microsoft Research.[10]
/machinelearning
Developers can train a Machine Learning Model or reuse an / (https://github.c
existing Model by a 3rd party and run it on any environment om/dotnet/machi
offline. This means developers do not need to have a nelearning/)
background in Data Science to use the framework. Support for Written in C# and C++
the open-source Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX)
Deep Learning model format was introduced from build 0.3 in Operating system Linux, macOS,
ML.NET. The release included other notable enhancements such Windows[2]
as Factorization Machines, LightGBM, Ensembles, LightLDA Platform .NET Core,
transform and OVA.[11] The ML.NET integration of .NET Framework
TensorFlow is enabled from the 0.5 release. Support for x86 &
Type Machine learning
x64 applications was added to build 0.7 including enhanced
library
recommendation capabilities with Matrix Factorization.[12] A full
roadmap of planned features have been made available on the License MIT License[3]
official GitHub repo.[13] Website dot.net/ml (http
s://dot.net/ml)
The first stable 1.0 release of the framework was announced at
Build (developer conference) 2019. It included the addition of a
Model Builder tool and AutoML (Automated Machine Learning) capabilities.[14] Build 1.3.1 introduced a
preview of Deep Neural Network training using C# bindings[15] for Tensorflow and a Database loader
which enables model training on databases. The 1.4.0 preview added ML.NET scoring on ARM
processors and Deep Neural Network training with GPU's for Windows and Linux.[16]

Performance

Microsoft's paper on machine learning with ML.NET demonstrated it is capable of training sentiment
analysis models using large datasets while achieving high accuracy. Its results showed 95% accuracy on
Amazon's 9GB review dataset.[17]

Model builder

The ML.NET CLI is a Command-line interface which uses ML.NET AutoML to perform model training
and pick the best algorithm for the data. The ML.NET Model Builder preview[18] is an extension for
Visual Studio that uses ML.NET CLI and ML.NET AutoML to output the best ML.NET Model using a
GUI.[14]

Model explainability

AI fairness and explainability has been an area of debate for AI Ethicists in recent years.[19] A major issue
for Machine Learning applications is the black box effect where end users and the developers of an
application are unsure of how an algorithm came to a decision or whether the dataset contains bias.[20]
Build 0.8 included model explainability API's that had been used internally in Microsoft. It added the
capability to understand the feature importance of models with the addition of 'Overall Feature Importance'
and 'Generalized Additive Models'.[21]

When there are several variables that contribute to the overall score, it is possible to see a breakdown of
each variable and which features had the most impact on the final score. The official documentation
demonstrates that the scoring metrics can be output for debugging purposes. During training & debugging
of a model, developers can preview and inspect live filtered data. This is possible using the Visual Studio
DataView tools.[22]

Infer.NET

Microsoft Research announced the popular Infer.NET model-based machine learning framework used for
research in academic institutions since 2008 has been released open source and is now part of the ML.NET
framework.[23] The Infer.NET framework utilises probabilistic programming to describe probabilistic
models which has the added advantage of interpretability. The Infer.NET namespace has since been
changed to Microsoft.ML.Probabilistic consistent with ML.NET namespaces.[24]

NimbusML Python support

Microsoft acknowledged that the Python programming language is popular with Data Scientists, so it has
introduced NimbusML the experimental Python bindings for ML.NET. This enables users to train and use
machine learning models in Python. It was made open source similar to Infer.NET.[12]

Machine learning in the browser

ML.NET allows users to export trained models to the Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX)
format.[25] This establishes an opportunity to use models in different environments that don't use ML.NET.
It would be possible to run these models in the client side of a browser using ONNX.js, a javascript client-
side framework for deep learning models created in the Onnx format.[26]

AI School Machine Learning Course

Along with the rollout of the ML.NET preview, Microsoft rolled out free AI tutorials and courses to help
developers understand techniques needed to work with the framework.[27][28][29]

See also
Free and open-
source software
portal

scikit-learn
Accord.NET
LightGBM
TensorFlow
Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit
List of numerical analysis software
List of numerical libraries for .NET framework

References
1. Ankit Asthana (2017-05-07). "Introducing ML.NET: Cross-platform, Proven and Open Source
Machine Learning Framework" (https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2018/05/07/introduc
ing-ml-net-cross-platform-proven-and-open-source-machine-learning-framework/).
blogs.msdn.microsoft.com. Retrieved 2018-05-10.
2. "ML.NET: Machine Learning made for .NET" (https://www.microsoft.com/net/learn/apps/mac
hine-learning-and-ai/ml-dotnet). Microsoft. Retrieved 11 May 2018.
3. at master · DotNet/MachineLearning (https://github.com/dotnet/machinelearning/blob/master/
LICENSE)
4. David Ramel (2018-05-08). "Open Source, Cross-Platform ML.NET Simplifies Machine
Learning -- Visual Studio Magazine" (https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2018/05/08/
ml-net-framework.aspx). Visual Studio Magazine. Retrieved 2018-05-10.
5. Kareem Anderson (2017-05-09). "Microsoft debuts ML.NET cross-platform machine learning
framework" (https://www.onmsft.com/news/microsoft-debuts-ml-net-cross-platform-machine-l
earning-framework). On MSFT. Retrieved 2018-05-10.
6. Ankit Asthana (2018-08-07). "Announcing ML.NET 0.4" (https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/do
tnet/2018/08/07/announcing-ml-net-0-4/). blogs.msdn.microsoft.com. Retrieved 2018-08-08.
 7. Gal Oshri (2018-05-06). "ML.NET 0.1 Release Notes" (https://github.com/dotnet/machinelear
ning/blob/master/Documentation/release-notes/0.1/release-0.1.md). GitHub. Retrieved
2018-05-10.
8. Tiwari, Aditya (2018-05-08). "Microsoft Launches ML.NET Open Source Machine Learning
Framework" (https://fossbytes.com/microsoft-ml-net-open-source-framework-preview-release
d/). Fossbytes. Retrieved 2018-05-10. "Over time, it will enable other ML tasks like anomaly
detection, recommendation system, and other approaches like deep learning using the
benefits of added libraries."
9. "Machine learning tasks in ML.NET" (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/machine-learni
ng/resources/tasks). Microsoft. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
10. James McCaffrey (2018-12-19). "ML.NET: The Machine Learning Framework for .NET
Developers" (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/mt848634/). MSDN Magazine
Connect() Special Issue 2018. Retrieved 2019-01-09. "Even though the ML.NET library is
new, its origins go back many years. Shortly after the introduction of the Microsoft .NET
Framework in 2002, Microsoft Research began a project called TMSN ("text mining search
and navigation") to enable software developers to include ML code in Microsoft products and
technologies. The project was very successful, and over the years grew in size and usage
internally at Microsoft. Somewhere around 2011 the library was renamed to TLC ("the
learning code"). TLC is widely used within Microsoft and is currently in version 3.10. The
ML.NET library is a descendant of TLC, with Microsoft-specific features removed. I've used
both libraries and, in many ways, the ML.NET child has surpassed its parent."
11. "Release Microsoft ML.NET v0.3" (https://github.com/dotnet/machinelearning/blob/release/pr
eview/docs/release-notes/0.3/release-0.3.md/). Github. 2018-07-03. Retrieved 2018-07-03.
12. "Announcing ML.NET 0.7 (Machine Learning .NET)" (https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotn
et/2018/11/08/announcing-ml-net-0-7-machine-learning-net/). Microsoft. 2018-11-08.
Retrieved 2018-11-14.
13. "The ML.NET Roadmap" (https://github.com/dotnet/machinelearning/blob/d9d1216221701e
e04951353e5180954056474cbf/ROADMAP.md/). Github. 2018-05-09. Retrieved
2018-06-30.
14. "Announcing ML.NET 1.0" (https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-ml-net-1-0/).
Microsoft. 2019-05-06. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
15. "SciSharp/TensorFlow.NET" (https://github.com/SciSharp/TensorFlow.NET). SciSharp
STACK. 21 February 2020.
16. "ML.NET 1.4.0-preview2" (https://github.com/dotnet/machinelearning/releases/tag/1.4.0-prev
iew2/). Github. 2019-10-09. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
17. Ahmed, Zeeshan; Amizadeh, Saeed; Bilenko, Mikhail; Carr, Rogan; Chin, Wei-Sheng;
Dekel, Yael; Dupre, Xavier; Eksarevskiy, Vadim; Erhardt, Eric; Eseanu, Costin; Filipi, Senja;
Finley, Tom; Goswami, Abhishek; Hoover, Monte; Inglis, Scott; Interlandi, Matteo;
Katzenberger, Shon; Kazmi, Najeeb; Krivosheev, Gleb; Luferenko, Pete; Matantsev, Ivan;
Matusevych, Sergiy; Moradi, Shahab; Nazirov, Gani; Ormont, Justin; Oshri, Gal; Pagnoni,
Artidoro; Parmar, Jignesh; Roy, Prabhat; et al. (2019-05-15). "Machine Learning at Microsoft
with ML.NET". Microsoft & Yandex: 2448–2458. arXiv:1905.05715 (https://arxiv.org/abs/190
5.05715). doi:10.1145/3292500.3330667 (https://doi.org/10.1145%2F3292500.3330667).
ISBN 9781450362016. S2CID 53380995 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:533809
95).
18. "dotnet/machinelearning-modelbuilder" (https://github.com/dotnet/machinelearning-modelbu
ilder). .NET Platform. 17 February 2020.
19. "Artificial Intelligence Can Reinforce Bias, Cloud Giants Announce Tools For AI Fairness" (ht
tps://www.forbes.com/sites/paulteich/2018/09/24/artificial-intelligence-can-reinforce-bias-clo
ud-giants-announce-tools-for-ai-fairness/). Forbes. 2018-09-24. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
20. "What it means to open AI's black box" (https://usblogs.pwc.com/emerging-technology/to-op
en-ai-black-box/). PwC. 2018-05-15. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
21. Hastie, Trevor J. (1 November 2017). "Generalized Additive Models". Statistical Models in S.
pp. 249–307. doi:10.1201/9780203738535-7 (https://doi.org/10.1201%2F9780203738535-
7). ISBN 9780203738535.
22. "Announcing ML.NET 0.8 – Machine Learning for .NET" (https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/d
otnet/2018/12/04/announcing-ml-net-0-8-machine-learning-for-net/). Microsoft. 2018-12-04.
Retrieved 2018-12-05.
23. "Microsoft open-sources Infer.NET AI code just in time for the weekend" (https://www.theregi
ster.co.uk/2018/10/05/imicrosoft_nfernet/). The Register. 2018-10-05. Retrieved 2018-10-31.
24. "Microsoft open sources Infer.NET, its popular model-based machine learning framework" (ht
tps://hub.packtpub.com/microsoft-open-sources-infer-net-its-popular-model-based-machine-l
earning-framework). Packt. 2018-10-08. Retrieved 2018-10-31.
25. "ML.NET – Export Machine Learning.Net models to ONNX format" (https://elbruno.com/201
8/07/11/mlnet-export-machine-learning-net-models-to-onnx-format/). El Bruno. 2018-07-11.
Retrieved 2019-01-09.
26. "ONNX.js: Universal Deep Learning Models in The Browser" (https://towardsdatascience.co
m/onnx-js-universal-deep-learning-models-in-the-browser-fbd268c67513/). Will Badr. 2019-
01-08. Retrieved 2019-01-09.
27. "AI School" (https://aischool.microsoft.com/learning-paths/). Microsoft AI. 2018-05-07.
Retrieved 2018-06-29.
28. "ML.NET Guide" (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/machine-learning/). Microsoft.
2018-05-07. Retrieved 2018-06-29.
29. "Infer.NET User Guide" (https://dotnet.github.io/infer/userguide/). Infer.NET. 2018-10-05.
Retrieved 2018-10-31.

Further reading
Capellman, Jarred (2020). Hands-On Machine Learning with ML.NET: Getting started with
Microsoft ML.NET to implement popular machine learning algorithms in C#. Packt
Publishing. ISBN 978-1789801781.
Mukherjee, Sudipta (2020). ML.NET Revealed: Simple Tools for Applying Machine Learning
to Your Applications. Apress. ISBN 978-1484265420.
Esposito, Dino; Esposito, Francesco (2022). Programming ML.NET. Microsoft Press.
ISBN 978-0137383658.

External links
Official website (https://dot.net/ml)

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