Nikhil Buduma Deep Learning in a Nutshell

Over the past year or two, I've heard these buzz words being tossed around a lot, and it's something that has definitely seized my curiosity recently. Deep learning is an area of active research these days, and if you've kept up with the field of computer science, I'm sure you've come across at least some of these terms at least once. Deep learning can be an indimidating concept, but it's becoming increasingly important these days. Moreover, deep learning methods are beating out traditional machine learning approaches on virtually every single metric. So what exactly is deep learning? And most importantly, why should you even care? If you're new to computer science, and you've followed me up till this point, please stick with me. Certain optional sections of this article may get a little math heavy (marked with a *), but I want to make this subject accessible to everyone, computer science major or not.