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LAURENCE MORONEY: So Su, you've been a Googler for five years.
SU FU: Mhm, yes.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Working as a software engineer.
SU FU: Yes.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Can you tell us all about it?
SU FU: Sure.
I joined Google about five years ago.
So I started from Android.
I'd been working on Android Hangouts, and then
Android Messages.
And it's been very challenging and rewarding,
since there are hundreds of millions
of people can use the feature that you're building.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Android Hangouts and Messages, wow!
So you've really been hitting lots and lots of users.
SU FU: I hope so.
Yeah.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Cool.
And then from that, now you've moved
on to services infrastructure?
Could you tell us a little bit about that?
SU FU: Yes.
So I joined the service infrastructure team
about a year ago.
It's been exciting, and quite challenging
as well, since it's unlike Android applications.
Service infrastructure is a little more hidden,
that the end customers--
service producers may not even meet them,
or interact with them.
LAURENCE MORONEY: So what exactly
is services infrastructure?
If I am, like, a developer, how do I interface with it,
or how do I use it?
Or--
SU FU: Sure.
Yes.
So service infrastructure is Google's foundational service
platform that Google uses to build our own APIs
and services.
Now, as an external service producer,
you can utilize our Google service infrastructure
to manage your own APIs and also publish your services.
LAURENCE MORONEY: OK.
So if I'm a developer and I'm building
some kind of application, and I want to use Google services,
there's so many good ones, right?
How would I go about getting started using them on service
infrastructure platform?
SU FU: Yes.
So you can use service infrastructure
through cloud endpoints.
LAURENCE MORONEY: OK.
SU FU: So basically you can--
so cloud endpoint is the API management platform
in that shell.
And then you can--
it can help you create, deploy, monitor,
protect your APIs and services.
All you have to do is-- you can write
your API and your services in any language or any framework,
but you need to also write a service configuration, which
may have a service name, title, RPC API definitions, and also
how your service may behave.
For example, for each user, what is the quota limit for it?
Or what kind of API metrics do you
want to gather for your APIs?
And then you just push that service configuration
to the service infrastructure, and we do all the work for you.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Nice.
SU FU: So during runtime, your service
may have API calls to the service infrastructure
for pre-condition checks.
For example, whether this user calling your service
has enough quota limits to call the service.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Oh, nice.
SU FU: Yes.
LAURENCE MORONEY: OK.
And then the details of creating all this
are in the documentation, and we'll put a link
to that in the comments below.
But also, isn't it-- like, if I want to consume existing Google
services-- like maybe translation, or Maps,
or something like that--
that's all run by the services infrastructure team, too.
SU FU: Yes.
So basically the service infrastructure
is used for almost all Google internal services and APIs.
So all these-- like Maps APIs, or translation APIs--
are built--
I mean, are managed and published
using our service infrastructure, which
is also One Platform, the T-shirt that I'm wearing.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Nice.
Yes, nice green T-shirt.
I thought it was Android, but now I see it's One Platform.
[CHUCKLING] Good thing we're not filming on a green screen
today.
So that's one of the things that I thought
was really neat about this, was that the things
that we do for managing, scalability, and quota, and all
of that for our services are also
available for your services as a developer.
SU FU: Yeah.
Exactly.
Like monitoring, logging, authentication, billing,
and quota management.
All those things is what we're providing
to the service producers.
LAURENCE MORONEY: So what's it like, day to day,
being a software engineer on all of this?
SU FU: I mean--
so for this new project--
or I mean, for the service infrastructure,
so that end users will see the end-to-end experience.
It's awesome.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Nice.
And now, outside of doing software engineering,
you also have a 20% project working with the TensorFlow
team, right?
SU FU: Yes.
Thank you, Laurence, for presenting this experience
to me and opportunity to me, to work on this new YouTube
channel, Coding TensorFlow.
Yes.
So I'm very passionate about AI, and also Google
has this amazing AI platform, TensorFlow framework, for--
LAURENCE MORONEY: I've heard of it.
I have.
SU FU: Yes.
So that everyone can--
I mean, everyone can use AI and use their imagination
and build their own things, and their own applications.
And I really want to promote this in the Chinese market.
China has a big market in AI as well.
LAURENCE MORONEY: I mean, with AI becoming
such an emergent thing, not just as a technology,
but also as a new tool for software developers,
and with so many software developers in China,
that it's really nice to be able to reach out to them.
And what's your experience been like?
Have you had feedback from developers who
have been watching your videos?
SU FU: Yeah.
They're surprised because I am a "software engineer" at Google,
but I also do this advocate thing for TensorFlow.
I think the interesting idea is, Google really
provides this culture that allows me to do anything
that can excite me.
So working as a full-time engineer in the service
infrastructure team, also promoting AI for developers.
So it's been very rewarding.
LAURENCE MORONEY: And that's great.
And your first batch of videos were around TensorFlow Lite.
So TensorFlow working on Android and iOS phones.
And what's your next set going to be?
SU FU: Yeah, it's going to be Javascript.
LAURENCE MORONEY: JavaScript?
So TensorFlow in the browser?
SU FU: Yeah, exactly that.
You can build your AI models and run it
in a browser using JavaScript, or Node.js.
So it's pretty neat.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Cool.
SU FU: It's pretty light.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Nice pun.
So thank you so much.
One final question, though, would be if-- for developers,
if they want to learn more about what you're
doing with TensorFlow, or if they
want to learn more about services infrastructure,
where would you point them?
Or what advice would you give them?
SU FU: Yes.
So, for service infrastructure, we
have pretty concise documentation.
We can paste a link in the YouTube videos.
And also, for the TensorFlow Lite,
we do, and the JavaScript, we do--
LAURENCE MORONEY: Coming soon.
SU FU: Yeah.
LAURENCE MORONEY: OK.
And, like, they're available-- the Chinese ones
for the Chinese audience are on our WeChat channel, right?
SU FU: Yes.
WeChat, and-- since WeChat is so popular,
everyone is on it, including TensorFlow.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Even I'm on it.
SU FU: Yeah, even you're on it.
And thanks for the Chinese advocates at Google.
They provide this WeChat post depicting the TensorFlow
Lite, and also the videos.
And as is in WeChat, we also posted the videos
on Bilibili, which is a video sharing platform for comics
and animation.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Oh, really?
SU FU: Yes, but it's been very popular.
A lot of people are watching them for development.
It's surprising.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Oh.
I'll have to check that one out.
I hadn't seen that.
Comics and animation are two of my favorite things,
and now we've got TensorFlow there, too.
Thank you so much, Su.
And thanks, everybody, for watching this episode of Coffee
with a Googler.
If you have any questions for me,
or if you have any questions for Su,
just please leave them in the comments below.
And whatever you do, don't forget
to hit that subscribe button.
Thank you.
SU FU: Subscribe button.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Subscribe button.
Well done.
SU FU: Thank you.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Cheers.
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