If I had to start learning AI / ML all over again, this is wha | Artificial Intelligence

If I had to start learning AI / ML all over again, this is what I would do differently:

𝐈’𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐏𝐲𝐓𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐰

TensorFlow is written in C++ and wrapped in Python. PyTorch is Python through-and-through. So it feels more natural. Also, the dynamic computational graph has an easier learning curve. So stick to PyTorch for getting started. You can learn TF later if you need to.

𝐈'𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧: 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭, 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝

This contradicts almost every course I've ever come across. But I learn by DOING. Abstract concepts don't make sense to me unless I can apply them to real-world problems. So if I had to do it all over again, I'd start by learning how to use the most basic model possible (decision trees) to predict labels in the iris dataset. Then I'd practice on other datasets until I got comfortable, and then advance to logistic regression. Then I'd learn the math and theory behind logistic regression. Rinse and repeat.


𝐈’𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐬𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐫
Success in ML is all about thinking through how your models can add value and then working backward. Traditional teaching leads to ML practitioners building models without a clear goal, which fails 95% of the time. By getting to deployment sooner, you train your mind to think closer to the end goal.

𝐈’𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐯 𝐞𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬

Having a remote dev environment is SO much easier since you don't have to worry about hardware or local package environments. Examples: Google Colab, Amazon Sagemaker, PyCharm Remote Development.

I'd start using Mlflow immediately

Building a model that will live in a Jupyter Notebook forever is very different from building a model that needs to be deployed and maintained in production. By using a framework like MLflow early on, you'll instill good habits from the start.

I'd wait longer to learn advanced NLP

It's good to start with basic NLP concepts like topic modeling and word2vec, but I'd avoid generative-based NLP until I had a solid foundation in the basics and at least 1-2 years of experience in the field.