“In this book, we will cover the most common types of ML, but from a probabilistic perspective. Roughly speaking, this means that we treat all unknown quantities (e.g., predictions about the future value of some quantity of interest, such as tomorrow’s temperature, or the parameters of some model) as random variables, that are endowed with probability distributions which describe a weighted set of possible values the variable may have.[…].”.
This book covers the building blocks of the most common methods in machine learning. This set of methods is like a toolbox for machine learning engineers. Those entering the field of machine learning should feel comfortable with this toolbox so they have the right tool for a variety of tasks.
The book focuses on machine learning models for tabular data (also called relational or structured data) and less on computer vision and natural language processing tasks. Reading the book is recommended for machine learning practitioners, data scientists, statisticians, and anyone else interested in making machine learning models interpretable.
“We set out to create a resource that could (i) be freely available for everyone; (ii) offer sufficient technical depth to provide a starting point on the path to actually becoming an applied machine learning scientist; (iii) include runnable code, showing readers how to solve problems in practice; (iv) allow for rapid updates, both by us and also by the community at large; and (v) be complemented by a forum for interactive discussion of technical details and to answer questions”.
I wrote this book because: • ML is not a recipe. It is not a matter of knowing the syntax and mechanics of various software packages.• ML is an art, not a science. (Hence the title of this book). • One does not have to be a math whiz or know advanced math in orer to use ML effectively, but one does need to understand the concepts well — the Why? and How? of ML methods
“Microsoft CNTK (Cognitive Toolkit, formerly Computational Network Toolkit), an open source code framework, enables you to create feed-forward neural network time series prediction systems, convolutional neural network image classifiers, and other deep learning systems. In Introduction to CNTK Succinctly, author James McCaffrey offers instruction on the basics of installing and running CNTK, and also addresses machine-learning regression and classification techniques. Exercises and explanations are included in each chapter”. (Syncfusion)
“In this ebook, we discuss some of the key differences between deep learning and traditional machine learning approaches. We look at three factors that might influence your decision and then step through an example that combines the two approaches”. (MathWorks).
The Deep Learning textbook is a resource intended to help students and practitioners enter the field of machine learning in general and deep learning in particular. The online version of the book is now complete and will remain available online for free. (“Written by three experts in the field, Deep Learning is the only comprehensive book on the subject.” ―Elon Musk, cochair of OpenAI; cofounder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX).
The combined impact of new computing resources and techniques with an increasing avalanche of large datasets, is transforming many research areas and may lead to technological breakthroughs that can be used by billions of people. In the recent years, Machine Learning and especially its subfield Deep Learning have seen impressive advances. Techniques developed within these two fields are now able to analyze and learn from huge amounts of real world examples in a disparate formats. While the number of Machine Learning algorithms is extensive and growing, their implementations through frameworks and libraries is also extensive and growing too.
