5-1 What is Deep Learning Lecture

If you have been following along since Module 1 of this course, you spent the first four modules learning how to use AI to write code, refactor code, test code, and ship code. That was Phase 1 of the course — AI-assisted software development. Starting now, in Phase 2, we flip the script. Instead of using AI to help you build software, you are going to build software that uses AI. And the foundation of nearly every modern AI application — every chatbot, every image classifier, every recommendation engine, every fraud detector — sits on top of one core technology: deep learning. In this lecture, we are going to demystify it. By the end of these fifteen minutes you will understand what deep learning actually is, why it works, where it falls apart, and how it fits into the broader landscape that you have already been operating in. We are not going to write any deep learning code yet. That is what lectures two, three, and four are for. This is the lecture where we make sure the foundation is rock solid before we pour the concrete.