Demystifying deep learning

This article is part of Demystifying AI, a series of posts that (try to) disambiguate the jargon and myths surrounding AI. Today, deep learning might seem like a manifestation of the saying by British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." In the past years, deep learning has proven to be capable of creating realistic images of non-existing people, recognize faces and voice commands, synthesize voice that sounds almost natural, and (pretend to) understand natural language. The remarkable feats of deep learning make it seem magical and out of reach. Yet, at heart, any deep learning model is just a combination of simple mathematical components.