Into the Neural Depths

 

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How is deep learning technology going to affect businesses worldwide?

‘Deep learning’ is a layer that goes on top of other big data applications. If there is a big data warehouse containing petabytes of data comprising images, text, and voice files among other things, deep learning is a layer that goes on top of that which allows you to extract knowledge or create new knowledge; and that is the point of deep learning. This technology is not new—it has been in practice since the early 1970s, with the advent of neural networks.

Neural networks are algorithms that use back propagation, which was developed in the mid-1970s to make inferences from data and recognize patterns. Its earliest applications were in particle physics wherein people had to process and look at images of particles colliding with each other. Neural networks were developed to look at these images and decide whether real physical events occurred. Rather than asking doctoral students to look at these images, those at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center were using algorithms for image pattern recognition.

Most of the early work in this area was largely in the field of science, computer programming, physics, etc. Its application in business is a relatively new phenomenon. We are at the beginning of the life cycle of this concept and there are only a few companies that are actively engaged in this. Many are engaged in big data but they do not have the expertise to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a layer on top of it, and deep learning as another layer.

Can you elaborate on the three different layers?