Understanding Deep Learning through Neuron Deletion DeepMind

By measuring network robustness in this way, we can evaluate whether a network is exploiting undesirable memorisation to "cheat." Understanding how networks change when they memorise will help us to build new networks which memorise less and generalise more. Together, these findings demonstrate the power of using techniques inspired by experimental neuroscience to understand neural networks. Using these methods, we found that highly selective individual neurons are no more important than non-selective neurons, and that networks which generalise well are much less reliant on individual neurons than those which simply memorise the training data. These results imply that individual neurons may be much less important than a first glance may suggest.