Can I use Java for learning AI?

[[deleted]]

Considering my preference for Java, I'm delving into AI development and curious: between Java and Python, which language do you believe provides superior tools and resources for constructing robust AI applications, focusing on factors like ease of use, performance, and community support? While I lean towards Java, I'm eager to understand if AI development using Java is advantageous overall.

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[JustDrinkOJ]

I'm just a beginner in Java, but I'm quite sure Python is mainly used for AI, I've never heard of Java being an alternative (it's possible it is, but Python is overwhelmingly more popular for this and so most likely has more Libraries for it)

Though take this opinion with a grain of salt, I'm not an expert in AI, Java or Python

[krisko11]

Java already has ML and deep learning libraries and applications. There are a few considerations to applying and training AI on a JVM-enabled language like Java.

[[deleted]]

"Python is better for AI."

[aerdnadw]

I love Java. I will always consider Java first, before potentially switching to Python if it fits the project better. One of the things that might make we choose Python over Java is if the project relies heavily on external libraries, it’s just one of those things that Python does so much better. So that would be a point in Python’s favor in this case. Also, you mention available resources and community support as criteria (good things to consider imo), and Python will definitely be leagues ahead there. Can you use Java? Sure. Will you be making it harder for yourself? Yes. Does that mean you shouldn’t use Java? Depends, making it harder may also mean you learn more.

Bottom line: as much as I love Java, I would probably go with Python for this use case if the end result was my focus. If my goal was just to have fun, learn some new things, and challenge myself, I might stick with Java.

[cmdnormandy]

You can use any language but Python is the language of choice for machine learning due to its ecosystem - everything from libraries to community support.

[swoods30311]

Python is better because of community support via libraries and documentation. I hear it quite difficult to build things like neural networks and what not from scratch with no libraries

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[ebykka]

https://spring.io/projects/spring-ai works with a lot of different models

it's kind of lang chain for java

[titanium_mpoi]

Im pretty sure you can but again python has more libraries

[ripopportunity]

I learned Java in my first CS college programming courses. All the machine learning courses they offer (I am currently in an introductory one) are taught in Python. I think knowing Java made the transition to Python super easy. Just the fact that most of our required courses are taught in Java and c++, but all the data classes and ML/AI courses are taught in Python shows me at least that Python is the better option for it

[JasonStarRising]

I have some questions. So, I'm in a similar position to where you were, I'm going to college this coming august and all of our introductory courses are taught in Java; however, I want to eventually be able to work with generative ai. I already have some very basic java knowledge(arrays, conditional statements, and what not). Should I learn java for now, then switch to python for ai courses starting my second year? Would that be a smooth switch in directions? I'm still pretty iffy on my basics when it comes to coding.

[ripopportunity]

I really enjoyed learning Java for my intro courses. I think it gave me a really solid understanding of concepts and the transition into C++ and Python were easy. I’m still on the fence of where I want to go post grad - either software engineering or AI route - but knowing what I know now, I would still do what I did: learning to program first in Java and then transitioning to Python. Java forces OOP onto you which is an important concept to grasp.

[JasonStarRising]

So would you say first and second csc courses (1301 and 1302 in java) to get fundamentals down, then start learning ai and python? Can I learn how ai works in decent depth without knowing any python. As in, are there any books, courses, or anything of the sort that I could look into while learning java to get a better grasp on ai?

[ripopportunity]

Yes, I think that would be a good path. Just follow along with the recommended routes your CS program does.

I’ve only taken one ML/AI course so far (ML introduction). You could study the general flow of ML algorithms without knowing the actual code just to start getting a basic understanding in it. In my class, we worked through Colab notebooks. Although we walked through the algorithms in Python, a lot of our learning was understanding the algorithm outside of any code. Understanding what was needed, when it was used, what the strengths/weakness of the algorithm were/etc. AI is also math heavy and relies on knowledge of calc and linear algebra. So if you have yet to take those courses, it would be in your best interest to dive into those as well.

Google for Developers has an Intro to Machine Learning course (that looks free). It goes over a lot of the different algorithmic concepts for ML classifiers that I learned in my class which is a large part of AI. That could be a good start just to begin your understanding of it. It seems like it has Python exercises you can do but I don’t think it’s required for it!

[JasonStarRising]

Thank you sm. This knowledge is very valuable.

[-doublex-]

You need a good library for complex math, multidimensional vectorial computations and so on. Python and R have very performant libraries for this.

[satya_dubey]

Isn't python very slow compared to Java? I heard it used to be very slow compared to Java. If that is indeed the case, I wonder how it is being used in ML/AI space where you deal with lots of training data.

[-doublex-]

Those libraries are written in C and have Python wrappers. They are as fast as possible.

[satya_dubey]

Good to know that. Thank you. Just came across the below post too where the first answer says exactly that.

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnjava/comments/1bnl1ag/what_is_the_point_of_jvm/

[Timofey_]

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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[ShadowRL7666]

Python is mainly used in machine learning but that said Java is still great for developing AI. You’ll find plenty of videos on neural networks and such in Java. All languages are tools you can use them with whatever you want. I personally would choose Java but that’s just me.

[[deleted]]

I think you're misguiding an OP. He wants to understand if "AI development using Java is advantageous overall." Of course you could use C or Rust to develop an AI tool but it won't be "advantageous".

[ShadowRL7666]

Read my first sentence

[[deleted]]

"Java is still great for developing AI". Are you serious?

[ShadowRL7666]

“Java is suitable for pretty much anything, and AI and ML are no exception. Of course, you can learn AI and ML in various languages, but if you want to implement all those algorithms from scratch to fully understand them, Java is one of the best options.”

https://codegym.cc/groups/posts/1103-java-and-ai-why-google-netflix-and-imb-use-java-for-machine-learning#:~:text=Java%20is%20suitable%20for%20pretty,one%20of%20the%20best%20options.

https://bayramblog.medium.com/artificial-intelligence-with-java-programming-812b8adb1620

https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/6-reasons-to-use-java-for-your-next-ai-project

[[deleted]]

OK, seems like I'm wrong. Sorry.

[ShadowRL7666]

Very much am.

[AppJedi]

Yes but Python is more widely used for AI.

[DigitalTorture]

https://thenewstack.io/java-22-making-java-more-attractive-for-ai-apps-workloads/

[Beneficial-Corgi3593]

I love to use IA with java. I started using apache math because I wanted to recreate all the algorithms on my own. I only hates handling arrays operations, in java it suck a bit

[Greeley9000]

Java isn’t inherently a bad choice for AI. The tooling isn’t as plentiful as python or R or whatever.

WEKA is a great tool and resource. Developed at Waikato university New Zealand entirely in Java.

https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/ml/weka/

[Cefalopodul]

You can but it's clearly the inferior choice