Scribd
Upload
9 views2 pages

Python and AI

Python is slower than C/C++ for AI but remains popular due to its ease of use and extensive libraries. To improve performance, consider migrating critical code to C/C++ using bindings or exporting models for inference. Various tools like PyBind11 and ONNX Runtime can facilitate this migration while balancing performance and productivity.

Uploaded by

TV MS
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
9 views2 pages

Python and AI

Python is slower than C/C++ for AI but remains popular due to its ease of use and extensive libraries. To improve performance, consider migrating critical code to C/C++ using bindings or exporting models for inference. Various tools like PyBind11 and ONNX Runtime can facilitate this migration while balancing performance and productivity.

Uploaded by

TV MS
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

I heard python is one of the slowest to run AI, so how to migrate to c/c++?

Python is generally slower at runtime than lower-level languages like C or C++, but it's still the
dominant language in AI/ML because of:

 Ease of use and readability

 Huge ecosystem (e.g. TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn)

 Strong community and research support

However, if you’re bottlenecked by performance or deploying to resource-constrained


environments, migrating parts of your AI code to C/C++ can offer significant speedups.

🧭 Migration Strategy

Instead of rewriting everything, focus on hot paths — the parts of your code that take the most
time.

🔹 Option 1: Use Python + C/C++ via bindings (recommended for most)

Use Python for orchestration and bind C/C++ for performance-critical sections:

1. Write performance-critical parts in C or C++

2. Expose them to Python using:

o PyBind11 (modern, elegant)

o Cython (Python-like syntax compiled to C)

o ctypes or cffi (basic FFI)

✅ Good balance of performance and productivity


🚫 Still need to manage build systems and memory in C/C++

🔹 Option 2: Rewrite entire project in C++ (for embedded or production edge cases)

This is hard, but feasible:

1. Replace ML libraries with C++ equivalents:

o PyTorch → LibTorch

o TensorFlow → TensorFlow C++ API

o NumPy → Eigen / Armadillo / xtensor


2. Rebuild data pipelines, training loops, model serving etc.

✅ Max control and performance


🚫 Very verbose and error-prone, steep learning curve

🔹 Option 3: Export Python-trained models for C++ inference

Train in Python, deploy with C++:

 ONNX Runtime (C++) — Export PyTorch or TensorFlow models and run them in C++

 TensorFlow Lite / TensorRT — Optimized C++ inference engines

✅ High performance with minimal rewriting


🚫 No training in C++, inference only

🛠 Tools Overview

Use Case Tool

Call C++ from Python PyBind11, Cython, ctypes

Train in Python, run in C++ ONNX, TensorRT, LibTorch

C++ ML libraries LibTorch, dlib, Shark ML, mlpack

You might also like