Artificial intelligence is the new electrical power. - Andrew Ng, Co-Founder of Coursera and CEO of Landing AI.
The quote above shares a vision that has become popular among scientists and business leaders in the last couple of years. After all, Artificial Intelligence is so disruptive that it can easily be associated with the discovery of electricity or the invention of the steam engine. Such a comparison can make more sense if we take into consideration the developments in productivity and the implications that these technologies mean for the future of our society.
Because, look - artificial intelligence and its fields of development changed the way we live and work for a few years now. Just like switching the light bulb from a torch or inventing the car to replace a wagon.
However, the concept of artificial intelligence is divided into different fields of research and development, two of which are Machine Learning and Deep Learning (DL) algorithms. If you think about it, these technologies are so integrated into our lives that we can’t even imagine letting them go now. But our focus is on Deep Learning (DL) algorithms.
To put it as simply as possible, Deep Learning (DL) enables machines to learn from experience and improve their performance over time.
It is a subset of machine learning that involves the use of artificial neural networks with multiple layers to learn and recognize patterns in large datasets. The term "deep" is not a philosophical pun, but refers to the multiple layers of neural networks used in these models.
Therefore, deep learning (DL) models can perform a variety of tasks such as image and speech recognition, natural language processing, and predictive analytics. And when we say large, we mean it!
And since Deep Learning models have so many real-world applications it’s no wonder we hear the term more often than ever nowadays. It plays a huge role in the development and implementation of self-driving cars, which require an instant analysis and decision-making process based on a huge amount of data every second.
Also, applications of Deep Learning models are the foundation for software that powers voice assistants like Amazon Alexa or Siri. Not to mention all the use cases of DL in the financial sector! And by that, we mean that it has the capacity to combat fraud or make precise stock analyses. However, while DL models are doing all of these things, the scaling of these algorithms is challenging. You didn’t expect it to be easy, did you?
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One of these challenges is the requirement for millions of relevant data inputs to be available for the DL model to train on.
For a Deep Learning model to be trained it requires the necessary data to be relevant and trustworthy. However, collecting large amounts of data is often an expensive and time-consuming process. Additionally, scaling a model requires more diverse data, which can be challenging to collect. One way to overcome this challenge is to use techniques such as data augmentation, where existing data is modified to create new training examples.
But these amounts of data are nothing without the hardware behind them. And by that, we mean GPUs, CPUs, or TPUs. You need to invest in the latest generation models to implement trained deep learning models on them. However, this is also an opportunity for companies with unlimited resources to invest in these kinds of hardware and offer cloud-based solutions for Deep Learning model implementation to the ones that don’t afford the necessary hardware.
Training deep learning models can require hours, days, or even weeks of computation time. We can access cloud-based services like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure all of which provide high-performance computing resources for deep learning at scale. They don’t offer the same freedom - but still, it’s the best alternative money-wise.
The architecture of a DL model can also present a challenge for scaling.
The architecture of a deep learning model refers to the structure and configuration of the neural network. It is one of the most essential factors that are fundamental to determining the performance and scalability of a model. Deep learning models can have different architectures, such as feedforward, convolutional, recurrent, and transformer networks. Each architecture has its strengths and weaknesses and is suited for different types of tasks.
To scale a deep learning model for real-world applications, engineers may need to modify the existing architecture to optimize it for real-time processing. They can deploy different strategies like Architecture or Hardware optimization. For example, they can use smaller filters, reduce the number of layers, or optimize for specific hardware architectures such as GPUs, TPUs, or FPGAs.
If you want a deep learning model to run in real-time, then you need to optimize it for performance!
One way to optimize the performance of a deep learning model is to reduce its size. Deep learning models can have millions of parameters, which can make them slow and computationally expensive to run. However, not all parameters are equally important, and some can be pruned or removed without significantly affecting the model's performance.
Even more so, deploying deep learning models for real-world applications is a complex process that requires careful consideration of various factors such as data security, model accuracy, and hardware compatibility. Once a deep learning model has been developed and optimized, it needs to be deployed in a production environment, where it can be tested. This process can be challenging due to factors like:
- Data security
- Model accuracy
- Hardware compatibility
- Continuous monitoring and maintenance
All in all, DeepLearning is here to stay. The real-world applications of DL models are highly innovative and at the time we speak countless researchers and scientists are working on developing this technology even further. Even though scaling deep learning models for real-world applications is a challenging task that requires a lot of effort, expertise, and patience, we are confident that it’s only a matter of time until we overcome these obstacles! After that, the DL models will make an even more significant impact on the world.
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