A Decade of Deep Learning: A Survey on The Magnificent Seven

At the core of this transformation is the development of multi-layered neural network architectures that facilitate automatic feature extraction from raw data, significantly improving the efficiency on machine learning tasks. Given the rapid pace of these advancements, an accessible manual is necessary to distill the key advances of the past decade. With this in mind, we introduce a study which highlights the evolution of deep learning, largely attributed to powerful algorithms. Among the multitude of breakthroughs, certain algorithms, including Residual Networks (ResNets), Transformers, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), Variational Autoencoders (VAEs), Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), Contrastive Language-Image Pretraining (CLIP) and Diffusion models, have emerged as the cornerstones and driving forces behind the discipline. We select these algorithms via a survey targeting a broad spectrum of academics and professionals with the aim of encapsulating the essence of the most influential algorithms over the past decade. In this work, we provide details on the selection methodology, exploring the mentioned architectures in a broader context of the history of deep learning. We present an overview of selected core architectures, their mathematical underpinnings, and the algorithmic procedures that define the subsequent extensions and variants of these models, their applications, and their challenges and potential future research directions. In addition, we explore the practical aspects related to these algorithms, such as training and optimization methods, normalization techniques, and rate scheduling strategies that are essential for their effective implementation. Therefore, our manuscript serves as a practical survey for understanding and applying these crucial algorithms and aims to provide a manual for experienced researchers transitioning into deep learning from other domains, as well as for beginners seeking to grasp the trending algorithms.