Deep Learning vs Neural Networks: Difference Between Deep Learning and Neural Networks

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have come a long way since their conception in the late 1950s. Today, these technologies have become immensely sophisticated and advanced. However, while technological strides in the Data Science domain are more than welcome, it has brought forth a slew of terminologies that are beyond the understanding of common man.

In fact, even many businesses leveraging disruptive technologies like AI and ML cannot tell apart many technological terminologies. 

The core cause of confusion around the new terminologies brought about by Data Science is because Data Science concepts are deeply entwined with one another – they are inter-related in many aspects.

That’s why we often hear and see the people around us using the terms “Artificial Intelligence,” “Machine Learning” and “Deep Learning” interchangeably. However, despite the conceptual similarities, these technologies are unique in their own way. 

Today, we will address one of the less highlighted matters in Data Science – the Deep Learning vs Neural Network debate.

Before we venture in deep into the Deep Learning vs Neural Network debate, we must understand what these concepts mean individually.

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What is Deep Learning?

Deep Learning or Hierarchical Learning is a subset of Machine Learning in Artificial Intelligence that can imitate the data processing function of the human brain and create similar patterns the brain used for decision making. Contrary to task-based algorithms, Deep Learning systems learn from data representations – they can learn from unstructured or unlabeled data.

Deep Learning architectures like deep neural networks, belief networks, and recurrent neural networks, and convolutional neural networks have found applications in the field of computer vision, audio/speech recognition, machine translation, social network filtering, bioinformatics, drug design and so much more. 

Examples of deep learning in practical scenarios

Plenty of industries are using deep learning to explore its benefits. The following section discusses some of the prominent examples:

1. Medical research: Cancer researchers use deep learning to automatically detect cancer cells.

2. Electronics: Deep learning is extensively used in automated speech translation. It is used in home assistance devices that respond to your voice and recognize your preferences.

3. Automated Driving: Automotive researchers can now automatically identify objects like stop signs, traffic lights, etc., using deep learning. They also use deep learning and artificial neural network to detect pedestrians, which help reduce accidents.

Key advantages of using deep learning

1. Independent of feature engineering:

Feature engineering is fundamental in machine learning. The reason is it enhances accuracy, and occasionally the process can need domain knowledge on a specific issue. One of the greatest benefits of using the deep learning concept is its potential to implement feature engineering on its own. It involves an algorithm that scans the data to recognize features that correlate and then merge them to facilitate faster learning without being explicitly instructed to do that. As a result, deep learning and artificial neural network reduce manual efforts for data scientists.

2. Maximum use of unstructured data:

A massive proportion of an organization’s data is unstructured since most of it exists in various formats like text, images, etc. Most machine learning algorithms find it challenging to analyze unstructured data. This implies that it stays unused and is where deep learning proves useful. You can use various data formats to train deep learning algorithms and gain valuable insights useful to the training’s purpose.

3. Can provide high-quality results:

Humans are bound to make mistakes. But once the neural networks are properly trained, a deep learning model can accomplish thousands of repetitive tasks in a comparatively shorter duration of time than what it takes for humans.

4. Removes unnecessary costs:

Recalls are quite costly. A recall can incur an organization millions of dollars in some industries. Deep learning helps organizations help to detect subjective defects which are difficult to train, for example, product labeling errors. Moreover, deep learning models can recognize defects that may be difficult to recognize otherwise.

Consistent images may become challenging due to various reasons. Deep learning can account for those variations in such cases and implement valuable features to make the assessments robust. This benefit of deep learning helps you to compare deep learning vs neural networks.

5. Removes the need for data labeling:

Data labeling can be a time-consuming and expensive job. The deep learning approach removes the need for well-labeled data. The reason is that the relevant algorithms can be learned without any instruction. Several other types of machine learning algorithms are not as successful as deep learning.

What is a Neural Network?

A Neural Networks is made of an assortment of algorithms that are modelled on the human brain. These algorithms can interpret sensory data via machine perception and label or cluster the raw data. They are designed to recognize numerical patterns that are contained in vectors within which all the real-world data (images, sound, text, time series, etc.) has to be translated. 

Essentially, the primary task of a Neural Networks is to cluster and classify the raw data – they group the unlabeled data based on the similarities found in the input data and then classify the data based on the labelled training dataset. Neural Networks can automatically adapt to changing input. So, you need not redesign the output criteria each time the input changes to generate the best possible result. 

Why should you use neural networks?

• They help to plot the complex and nonlinear relationships of real-world scenarios.
• They can generalize, and therefore, they are used in pattern recognition.
• They are used in various applications like signature identification, text summarization, handwriting recognition, and more.
• They can model data with superior volatility.

Benefits of neural networks:

• Neural Networks can learn by themselves and generate output that is not restricted to the provided input.
• The input is saved in their networks rather than a database. So, data loss doesn’t influence its working.
• They can learn from examples and implement them when similar events happen. So, they are useful in real-time events.
• The network can identify the fault and still generate the output, although if a neuron is not responding or information is missing.
• The neural network machine learning can carry out multiple tasks in parallel without impacting the overall system performance.
• It has a broad scope in the future. The researchers are continuously working on the latest technologies dependent on neural networks.
• Automation is gradually becoming more prevalent, so neural network machine learning is more efficient at handling changes and adapting accordingly.
• There are more job openings for neural network experts. So, it is expected that neural networks-related jobs would be ample in the future.

Deep Learning vs Neural Network

While Deep Learning incorporates Neural Networks within its architecture, there’s a stark difference between Deep Learning and Neural Networks. Here we’ll shed light on the three major points of difference between Deep Learning and Neural Networks.

1. Definition

Neural Networks – It is a structure consisting of ML algorithms wherein the artificial neurons make the core computational unit that focuses on uncovering the underlying patterns or connections within a dataset, just like the human brain does while decision making.

Deep Learning – It is a branch of Machine Learning that leverages a series of nonlinear processing units comprising multiple layers for feature transformation and extraction. It has several layers of artificial neural networks that carry out the ML process. The first layer of the neural network processes the raw data input and passes the information to the second layer. Deep Learning Career Path: Top Fascinating Job Roles

The second later then processes that information further by adding additional information (for example, user’s IP address) and passes it to the next layer. This process continues throughout all layers of the Deep Learning network until the desired result is achieved.

2. Structure

A Neural Network consists of the following components:

• Neurons – A neuron is a mathematical function designed to imitate the functioning of a biological neuron. It computes the weighted average of the data input and passes the information through a nonlinear function, a.k.a. The activation function (for examples, the sigmoid). 
• Connection and weights – As the name suggests, connections connect a neuron in one layer to another neuron in the same layer or another layer. Each connection has a weight value linked to it. Here, a weight represents the strength of the connection between the units. The aim is to reduce the weight value to decrease the possibilities of loss (error).
• Propagation function – Two propagation functions work in a Neural Network: forward propagation that delivers the “predicted value” and backward propagation that delivers the “error value.”
• Learning rate – Neural Networks are trained using Gradient Descent to optimize the weights. Back-propagation is used at each iteration to calculate the derivative of the loss function in reference to each weight value and subtract it from that weight. Learning rate decides how quickly or slowly you want to update the weight (parameter) values of the model.

 A Deep Learning model consists of the following components:

• Motherboard – The motherboard chipset of the model is usually based on PCI-e lanes.
• Processors – The GPU required for Deep Learning must be determined according to the number of cores and cost of the processor.
• RAM – This is the physical memory and storage. Since Deep Learning algorithms demand greater CPU usage and storage area, the RAM must be huge.
• PSU – As the memory demands increase, it becomes crucial to employ a large PSU that can handle massive and complex Deep Learning functions. 

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3. Architecture

The architecture of a Neural Network includes:

• Feed Forward Neural Networks – This is the most common kind of Neural Network architecture wherein the first layer is the input layer, and the final layer is the output layer. All intermediary layers are hidden layers.
• Recurrent Neural Networks – This network architecture is a series of artificial neural networks wherein the connections between nodes make a directed graph along a temporal sequence. Hence, this type of network depicts temporal dynamic behaviour.
• Symmetrically Connected Neural Networks – These are similar to recurrent neural networks with the only difference being that in Symmetrically Connected Neural Networks, the connections between units are symmetrical (they have the same weight values in both directions). They are constrained in nature compared to a recurrent neural network because they use energy functions. Symmetrically connected networks with hidden networks are called Boltzmann machines, whereas those without the hidden network are called Hopfield nets.

The architecture of a Deep Learning model includes:

• Unsupervised Pre-trained Networks – As the name suggests, this architecture need no formal training since it is pre-trained on past experiences. These include Autoencoders, Deep Belief Networks, and Generative Adversarial Networks.
• Convolutional Neural Networks – This is a Deep Learning algorithm that can take in an input image, assign importance (learnable weights and biases) to different objects in the image, and also differentiate between those objects. It targets learning higher-order features through convolutions which improve the identification user experience and image recognition. This architecture simplifies the identification of street signs, faces, platypuses, and other substances.
• Recurrent Neural Networks – Recurrent Neural Networks refer to a specific kind of artificial neural network that adds additional weights to the network to create cycles in the network graph so as to maintain an internal state. A recurrent neural network belongs to the family of feedforward that believes in sending their information over time steps.
• They present information about how that hierarchical structure is upheld in the dataset.Recursive Neural Networks – This is a type of Deep Neural Network that is created by applying the same set of weights recursively over a structured input, to produce a structured prediction over or a scalar prediction on variable-size input structures by passing a topological structure.

4. Time and Accuracy

• Generally, it takes less time to train neural networks. They feature lower accuracy than deep learning approaches.

  It takes more time to train deep learning models. They feature higher accuracy than neural networks. This is the prominent difference between deep learning vs neural networks.

5. Critique

Neural network criticism is dependent on theoretical problems, training problems, hardware problems, hybrid techniques, and real-world examples of criticisms. On the other hand, deep learning criticism is based on errors, theory, cyber threats, etc. This point of deep learning vs neural networks difference gives you a clear idea of which model to use based on the problem.

6. Task interpretation

Neural networks poorly interpret your tasks whereas the deep learning network more effectively interprets your task.

7. Application areas:

The greatest point of comparison between deep learning vs neural networks is the applications.

The neural network models are used for the following applications:

• System identification
• Natural resource management
• Process control
• Vehicle control
• Quantum chemistry
• Decision making
• Game playing
• Pattern recognition
• Face identification
• Signal classification
• Sequence recognition
• Data mining
• Machine translation
• Email spam filtering
• Social network filtering, etc.

The deep learning models are used for the following applications:

• Image recognition
• Automatic speech recognition
• Natural language processing
• Visual art processing
• Drug discovery and toxicology
• Customer relationship management
• Mobile advertising
• Recommendation engines
• Bioinformatics
• Image restoration etc.

Conclusion

Since Deep Learning and Neural Networks are so deeply intertwined, it is difficult to tell them apart from each other on the surface level. However, by now, you’ve understood that there’s a significant difference between Deep Learning and Neural Networks.

While Neural Networks use neurons to transmit data in the form of input values and output values through connections, Deep Learning is associated with the transformation and extraction of feature which attempts to establish a relationship between stimuli and associated neural responses present in the brain.

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