What's the deal with deep learning?

Facial recognition: controversial as it stands right now, facial recognition is still being introduced in a multitude of services and applications. Probably the most renowned one is Facebook's use of deep-learning-based recognition to tag (News - Alert) images uploaded to the platform. Some of the tests that are being conducted right now have facial recognition applications as part of security systems in public spaces. The purpose is to use neural networks to aid in the search of missing persons, while also quickly identify criminals and terrorists. In this case, deep learning is more than just the comparison of a face against a database, because the algorithms are capable of factoring in changes in hairstyles, minor surgeries, and even modifications due to the conditions of the place where the image is taken.