Recurrent neural networks can be large and compute-intensive, yet many applications that benefit from RNNs run on small devices with very limited compute and storage capabilities while still having run-time constraints. As a result, there is a need for compression techniques that can achieve significant compression without negatively impacting inference run-time and task accuracy. This paper explores a new compressed RNN cell implementation called Hybrid Matrix Decomposition (HMD) that achieves this dual objective. This scheme divides the weight matrix into two parts - an unconstrained upper half and a lower half composed of rank-1 blocks. This results in output features where the upper sub-vector has "richer" features while the lower-sub vector has "constrained" features". HMD can compress RNNs by a factor of 2-4x while having a faster run-time than pruning and retaining more model accuracy than matrix factorization. We evaluate this technique on 3 benchmarks.

In this work, we describe practical lessons we have learned from successfully using contextual bandits (CBs) to improve key business metrics of the Microsoft Virtual Agent for customer support. While our current use cases focus on single step einforcement learning (RL) and mostly in the domain of natural language processing and information retrieval we believe many of our findings are generally applicable. Through this article, we highlight certain issues that RL practitioners may encounter in similar types of applications as well as offer practical solutions to these challenges.

Data-driven approaches are becoming more common as problem-solving techniques in many areas of research and industry. In most cases, machine learning models are the key component of these solutions, but a solution involves multiple such models, along with significant levels of reasoning with the models' output and input. Current technologies do not make such techniques easy to use for application experts who are not fluent in machine learning nor for machine learning experts who aim at testing ideas and models on real-world data in the context of the overall AI system. We review key efforts made by various AI communities to provide languages for high-level abstractions over learning and reasoning techniques needed for designing complex AI systems. We classify the existing frameworks based on the type of techniques and the data and knowledge representations they use, provide a comparative study of the way they address the challenges of programming real-world applications, and highlight some shortcomings and future directions.

Explaining and interpreting the decisions of recommender systems are becoming extremely relevant both, for improving predictive performance, and providing valid explanations to users. While most of the recent interest has focused on providing local explanations, there has been a much lower emphasis on studying the effects of model dynamics and its impact on explanation. In this paper, we perform a focused study on the impact of model interpretability in the context of calibration. Specifically, we address the challenges of both over-confident and under-confident predictions with interpretability using attention distribution. Our results indicate that the means of using attention distributions for interpretability are highly unstable for un-calibrated models. Our empirical analysis on the stability of attention distribution raises questions on the utility of attention for explainability.

But what is that one special thing they have in common? They are all masters of deep learning. We often hear about AI, or self-driving cars, or the'algorithmic magic' at Google, Facebook, and Amazon. But it is not magic - it is deep learning. And more specifically, it is usually deep neural networks – the one algorithm to rule them all.

Breast cancer is the second leading cancer-related cause of death among women in the US. Early detection, through routine annual screening mammography, is the best first line of defense against breast cancer. However, these screening mammograms require expert radiologists (i.e. A radiologist can spend up to 10 hours a day working through these mammograms, in the process experiencing both eye-strain and mental fatigue. Modern computer vision models, built principally on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), have seen incredible progress in recent years.

Leverage Natural Language Processing (NLP) in Python and learn how to set up your own robust environment for performing text analytics. The second edition of this book will show you how to use the latest state-of-the-art frameworks in NLP, coupled with Machine Learning and Deep Learning to solve real-world case studies leveraging the power of Python. This edition has gone through a major revamp introducing several major changes and new topics based on the recent trends in NLP. We have a dedicated chapter around Python for NLP covering fundamentals on how to work with strings and text data along with introducing the current state-of-the-art open-source frameworks in NLP. We have a dedicated chapter on feature engineering representation methods for text data including both traditional statistical models and newer deep learning based embedding models.

From discovering drugs, to locating black holes, to finding safer nuclear energy sources, high performance computing systems around the world have enabled breakthroughs across all scientific domains. Japan's fastest supercomputer, ABCI, powered by NVIDIA Tensor Core GPUs, enables similar breakthroughs by taking advantage of AI. The system is the world's first large-scale, open AI infrastructure serving researchers, engineers and industrial users to advance their science. The software used to drive these advances is as critical as the servers the software runs on. However, installing an application on an HPC cluster is complex and time consuming.

In a clear demonstration of why AI leadership demands the best compute capabilities, NVIDIA today unveiled the world's 22nd fastest supercomputer -- DGX SuperPOD -- which provides AI infrastructure that meets the massive demands of the company's autonomous-vehicle deployment program. The system was built in just three weeks with 96 NVIDIA DGX-2H supercomputers and Mellanox interconnect technology. Delivering 9.4 petaflops of processing capability, it has the muscle for training the vast number of deep neural networks required for safe self-driving vehicles. Customers can buy this system in whole or in part from any DGX-2 partner based on our DGX SuperPOD design. AI training of self-driving cars is the ultimate compute-intensive challenge.

I just briefly wanted to say a little bit about my background. I studied Math and Computer Science in college and then did a Ph.D. in Math. I worked as a quant in Energy Trading and that's where I first started working with data. I was an early data scientist and backend developer at Uber. I taught full stack software development at Hackbright. I really love teaching and I think I'll always return to teaching in some form. And then two years ago, together with Jeremy Howard, I started fast.ai with the goal of making deep learning more accessible and easier to use. I'm on Twitter @math_rachel and, as William said, I blog about diversity on Medium @racheltho, and I blog about data science at fast.ai. I just have one slide about fast.ai. We have this, as William mentioned, a totally free course, "Practical Deep Learning for Coders." The only prerequisite is one year of coding experience. It's distinctive in that there are no advanced math prerequisites, yet it takes you to the state-of-the-art. We've had a lot of success. We've had students get jobs at Google Brain, have their work featured on HBO and in Forbes, launch new companies, get new jobs.