What is the Transfer Learning ?

Hüseyin Kaya
5 min readAug 30, 2022

Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and new advancements in AI is changing the world as we know it. Transfer Learning is one such concept that has helped machine learning algorithms to cope with adversarial data and learn on jobs with less input-generating cost. We’re here to introduce you to the basics of this technology in an easy to understand way, so keep reading!

Figure 1. A diagram describing Transfer Learning
Figure 1. A diagram describing Transfer Learning

Introduction to Machine Learning

Machine learning is a field of artificial intelligence that uses algorithms to learn from data. Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI).

Machine learning algorithms build models based on data that can be used to make predictions. The prediction is based on the patterns the algorithm has learned from the data.

Figure 2. Machine Learning sub-fields

Some machine learning tasks are:

Classification: Classification is a task where the algorithm predicts the class of an object. For example, an image classification algorithm can be trained to identify different objects in images.

Regression: Regression is a task where the algorithm predicts a value. For example, a regression algorithm can be used to predict the price of a stock based on historical data.

Clustering: Clustering is a task where the algorithm groups similar objects together. For example, a clustering algorithm can be used to group customers together based on their purchase history.

Transfer learning is a technique that can be used to improve the performance of machine learning models. Transfer learning is when you use knowledge from one domain to another domain.

DL vs CL

Deep learning (DL) and classical machine learning (CL) are both subfields of artificial intelligence (AI). The main difference between DL and CL is that DL focuses on learning from data that is unstructured or unlabeled, while CL requires data to be structured and labeled. DL algorithms are also much more computationally intensive than CL algorithms, making them more suitable for tasks like image recognition and natural language processing.

Figure 3. Machine Learning and Deep Learning

Transfer Learning

Transfer learning is a technique in which knowledge from one task is transferred to another related task. It is a powerful tool for leveraging the large amount of data and general insights that are available in many pre-trained models. For example, a model that has been trained on a large dataset of natural images can be used to improve the performance of a visual recognition system for a different task, such as classifying medical images.

Transfer learning can be used in many different ways, but the most common approach is to use a pre-trained model as a starting point for training a new model on a different dataset. This can be done by either fine-tuning the weights of the pre-trained model or by using the pre-trained model as a feature extractor and training a new model from scratch using the extracted features.

There are many benefits to using transfer learning, including:

Improved performance: When trained on large datasets, deep neural networks can learn complex patterns that are difficult to learn from smaller datasets. By starting with a pre-trained model, we can leverage this knowledge and train our own models more quickly and effectively.

Reduced training time: Training deep neural networks from scratch can take days or months.

Why do we need Transfer Learning?

Transfer learning is a technique that enables us to use the knowledge learned by one AI model to train another AI model. This is useful when we want to train a new AI model but don’t have enough data to train it from scratch. By using transfer learning, we can “transfer” the knowledge learned by the first AI model to the new AI model, which can then be trained using a smaller amount of data.

There are many benefits to using transfer learning. First, it can help us train new AI models more quickly and efficiently. Second, it can improve the performance of our AI models by making use of knowledge that has already been learned by other models. Finally, it can allow us to use less data when training our AI models, which is important when data is scarce or expensive to obtain.

Figure 4. Transfer Learning

In summary, transfer learning is a powerful technique that can help us train better AI models more efficiently. If you’re looking to get started with transfer learning, be sure to check out our tutorial on how to do so.

ML Problems in practice

There are many different ways to tackle the problems that machine learning presents. In this section, we will take a look at some specific problems that can be solved with transfer learning.

One of the benefits of transfer learning is that it can help to address issues of data scarcity. If you only have a small amount of data to work with, it can be difficult to train a model from scratch that is able to generalize well. However, by starting with a pre-trained model, you can use the knowledge that has already been learned to better understand your own data.

Another common problem is the need for domain-specific knowledge. In some cases, you might have all the data you need but lack the expert knowledge necessary to build a traditional machine learning model. Transfer learning can help by providing a model that has already been trained on similar data. This can save you a lot of time and effort in getting your own model up and running.

Finally, transfer learning can also be used when there is a need for continual learning. In some applications, it is not possible to get all the training data upfront. Instead, the data might be streaming in continuously or arriving in batches. In these situations, transfer learning can be used.

Applications of Transfer Learning

There are many different ways that transfer learning can be applied in the realm of artificial intelligence. Here are just a few examples:

1. Improve pattern recognition in image classification problems.

2. Create better models for natural language processing tasks such as machine translation or text summarization.

3. Help reinforcement learning agents learn faster and achieve better results.

4. Improve the performance of automatic speech recognition systems.

5. Enable robots to more quickly learn new skills by transferring knowledge from other robots.

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