# What's the state of Automatic Differentiation in Julia January 2023?

**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/whats-the-state-of-automatic-differentiation-in-julia-january-2023/92473
**Category:** General Usage
**Tags:** autodiff
**Created:** [January 3, 2023, 11:24pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/whats-the-state-of-automatic-differentiation-in-julia-january-2023/92473 "2023-01-03T23:24:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
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### Author: ![albheim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/albheim/32/34660_2.png) [@albheim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/albheim)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2023, 8:58am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/whats-the-state-of-automatic-differentiation-in-julia-january-2023/92473/3 "2023-01-04T08:58:55Z")

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> [@State of machine learning in Julia](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/state-of-machine-learning-in-julia/74385/12):
>
> It’s not the same or similar thing as the E-graph, but instead it’s similar to the interfaces the E-graphs are acting on. Maybe the easiest way to describe it by saying what is the same or similar. The Python bytecode is like “the Julia IR”. Of course, as an optimizing compiler, there isn’t a singular IR, instead there are stages: the untyped IR, the typed IR, and the LLVM IR. Cassette and IRTools, the tools on which [Zygote.jl](https://github.com/FluxML/Zygote.jl) was built (some notable others are [AutoPreallocation.jl](https://github.com/oxinabox/AutoPreallocation.jl), [SparsityDete…](https://github.com/SciML/SparsityDetection.jl)

This thread is about a year old now, but Chris talks a little about “why Zygote is being replaced with Diffractor and Enzyme”. Probably more stuff in that thread that is of interest.

> [@mrVeng](#):
>
> I am also curious about Diffractor.jl. Is it still in development?

I recently saw Keno say he would put some time into Diffractor again, and seems like a few commits for starting stage 2 landed last week. So it certainly seems alive, though I think it has been slow progress for a while since some compiler stuff was needed for it to continue IIRC.

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