Learning AI if You Suck at Math -- P5 -- Deep Learning and Convolutional Neural Nets in Plain…

Welcome to part five of Learning AI if You Suck at Math. If you missed parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 be sure to check them out! Convnets are the workhorses of computer vision. At TensorFlow Summit 2017, a researcher showed how they're using a convnet to detect skin cancer as well as a dermatologist with a smart phone! So why are neural networks so powerful? So what's pattern recognition and why do we care if it's automatic? Patterns come in many forms but let's take two critical examples: In image processing pattern recognition is known as feature extraction. When you look at a photo or something in the real world you're selectively picking out the key features that allow you to make sense of it. This is something you do unconsciously. When you see the picture of my cat Dove you think "cat" or "awwwwww" but you don't really know how you do that. Your built in neural network knows this is a cat. It seems simple to you because you do it every day, but that's because the complexity is hidden away from you. Your brain is a black box. You come with no instruction manual.