Is Deep Learning Necessary For Simple Classification Tasks

Deep learning (DL) models are known for tackling the nonlinearities associated with data, which the traditional estimators such as logistic regression couldn't. However, there is still a cloud of doubt with regards to the increased use of computationally intensive DL for simple classification tasks. To find out if DL really outperforms shallow models significantly, the researchers from the University of Pennsylvania experiment with three ML pipelines that involve traditional methods, AutoML and DL in a paper titled, 'Is Deep Learning Necessary For Simple Classification Tasks.' The UPenn researchers stated that a support-vector machine (SVM) model might predict more accurately susceptibility to a certain complex genetic disease than a gradient boosting model trained on the same dataset. Moreover, choosing different hyperparameters within that SVM model can vary performances.