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Fast.ai is basically pytorch + loads of utility functions. By following the course/book, one to some extend learns what fastai does, and how it uses pytorch for

Fast.ai is basically pytorch + loads of utility functions. By following the course/book, one to some extend learns what fastai does, and how it uses pytorch for practical stuff.

carbocation 5y ago
I have also had good success with FastAI as my initial hook into PyTorch. A brief post that shows just how thin the FastAI layer can be (if you want!) is here: https://muellerzr.github.io/fastblog/2021/02/14/Pytorchtofastai.html https://muellerzr.github.io/fastblog/2021/02/14/Pytorchtofas...
kriro 5y ago
I second this but once you are comfortable with fast.ai it's a good idea to reproduce some things in pure PyTorch eventually because it'll give you a deep understanding and appreciation for fast.ai as well.
willj 5y ago
One thing with fastai that annoyed me when I built a project with it was that the v1 and v2 APIs are totally different, and if you google or search stackoverflow for help with something, I found it more likely to stumble on answers for the v1 API than the v2 API. I also didn’t find their documentation super helpful for more than the most basic things (though not all documentation can be as amazing as scikit-learn).
apohn 5y ago
Am I allowed to have a contrarian opinion :) I went through the first version of FastAI (when it was Keras, torch?/tensorflow?) and forgot most of it because never did anything with Deep Learning. Then I did the FastAI V1 course again where they use FastAI library V2. I really liked the first version of the course because I felt like Jeremy did an awesome job of balancing understanding the guts of using a DL library with getting stuff done. It was a tough course, but I felt like I really understood things. I felt like the version with FastAI library V2 went too far into "Here are some commands you can use in the FastAI V2 library to to do this sexy thing with Deep Learning." I completed that course and really felt it should have been titled "A Course on the Fast AI V2 Library" I recently purchased "Deep Learning with PyTorch" by Eli Stevens. I've been working through this book and feel like it explains things a lot more. I'm haven't finished the book with it, but I do like it so far.
- carom 5y ago
  I felt similarly about the fastai course. I'm doing the deeplearning.ai course (Andrew Ng) and I really like it. Warning though, it is bottom up, so you start by implementing neural nets with numpy to understand the internals, then it gets into TensorFlow. Just another resource if people are looking to learn deep learning and not pytorch in particular.

Fast.ai is basically pytorch + loads of utility functions. By following the course/book, one to some extend learns what fastai does, and how it uses pytorch for practical stuff.

carbocation 5y ago

I have also had good success with FastAI as my initial hook into PyTorch. A brief post that shows just how thin the FastAI layer can be (if you want!) is here: https://muellerzr.github.io/fastblog/2021/02/14/Pytorchtofastai.html https://muellerzr.github.io/fastblog/2021/02/14/Pytorchtofas...

kriro 5y ago

I second this but once you are comfortable with fast.ai it's a good idea to reproduce some things in pure PyTorch eventually because it'll give you a deep understanding and appreciation for fast.ai as well.

willj 5y ago

One thing with fastai that annoyed me when I built a project with it was that the v1 and v2 APIs are totally different, and if you google or search stackoverflow for help with something, I found it more likely to stumble on answers for the v1 API than the v2 API. I also didn’t find their documentation super helpful for more than the most basic things (though not all documentation can be as amazing as scikit-learn).

apohn 5y ago

Am I allowed to have a contrarian opinion :) I went through the first version of FastAI (when it was Keras, torch?/tensorflow?) and forgot most of it because never did anything with Deep Learning. Then I did the FastAI V1 course again where they use FastAI library V2. I really liked the first version of the course because I felt like Jeremy did an awesome job of balancing understanding the guts of using a DL library with getting stuff done. It was a tough course, but I felt like I really understood things. I felt like the version with FastAI library V2 went too far into "Here are some commands you can use in the FastAI V2 library to to do this sexy thing with Deep Learning." I completed that course and really felt it should have been titled "A Course on the Fast AI V2 Library" I recently purchased "Deep Learning with PyTorch" by Eli Stevens. I've been working through this book and feel like it explains things a lot more. I'm haven't finished the book with it, but I do like it so far.

carom 5y ago
I felt similarly about the fastai course. I'm doing the deeplearning.ai course (Andrew Ng) and I really like it. Warning though, it is bottom up, so you start by implementing neural nets with numpy to understand the internals, then it gets into TensorFlow. Just another resource if people are looking to learn deep learning and not pytorch in particular.