AI/ML

CheatSheet
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction to AI and ML
What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
Types of AI: Narrow AI vs. General AI
What is Machine Learning (ML)?
Supervised vs. Unsupervised vs. Reinforcement Learning
Key Terminologies (Model, Feature, Target, Algorithm)
Applications of AI and ML
Difference Between AI, ML, and Deep Learning (DL)

2. Mathematics for ML/AI

Linear Algebra
Vectors, Matrices, and Tensors
Matrix Operations
Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors
Probability and Statistics
Mean, Variance, Standard Deviation
Bayes Theorem
Conditional Probability
Probability Distributions (Normal, Binomial, Poisson)
Calculus for Optimization
Derivatives and Gradients
Gradient Descent

3. Data Preprocessing
Data Cleaning (Missing Values, Outliers)
Data Normalization and Standardization
Encoding Categorical Variables (One-Hot Encoding, Label Encoding)
Feature Scaling (Min-Max, Z-score)
Feature Engineering (Polynomial Features, Binning)
Handling Imbalanced Data (SMOTE, Undersampling, Oversampling)

4. Supervised Learning Algorithms

Linear Regression
Simple vs. Multiple Linear Regression
Gradient Descent and Normal Equation
Regularization (L1, L2)
Logistic Regression
Binary vs. Multiclass Classification
Sigmoid Function and Cost Function
Regularization
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
4. Supervised Learning Algorithms
K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN)
Distance Metrics (Euclidean, Manhattan)
Choosing K
Advantages and Disadvantages
Support Vector Machines (SVM)
Hyperplanes and Margins
Linear and Non-Linear SVM
Kernel Trick
Decision Trees
Gini Impurity and Entropy
Overfitting and Pruning
Random Forest
Bootstrapping
Bagging
Feature Importance
Gradient Boosting Machines (GBM)
XGBoost, LightGBM, CatBoost
Hyperparameter Tuning
Early Stopping
Naive Bayes
Gaussian, Multinomial, Bernoulli Naive Bayes
Assumptions and Applications

5. Unsupervised Learning Algorithms

K-Means Clustering
Algorithm Overview
Elbow Method
K-Means++ Initialization
Hierarchical Clustering
Agglomerative vs. Divisive Clustering
Dendrogram and Optimal Cut
Principal Component Analysis (PCA)
Dimensionality Reduction
Eigenvalue Decomposition
Scree Plot and Explained Variance
DBSCAN
Density-Based Clustering
Epsilon and MinPts Parameters
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
6. Reinforcement Learning
Introduction to Reinforcement Learning
Key Concepts (Agent, Environment, State, Action, Reward)
Markov Decision Process (MDP)
Q-Learning and Deep Q-Networks (DQN)
Policy Gradients and Actor-Critic Methods
Exploration vs. Exploitation

7. Neural Networks & Deep Learning

Introduction to Neural Networks
Perceptrons
Activation Functions (Sigmoid, ReLU, Tanh)
Forward Propagation and Backpropagation
Loss Functions (MSE, Cross-Entropy)
Deep Neural Networks (DNN)
Architecture and Layers
Training Process and Optimizers
Overfitting and Regularization (Dropout, L2 Regularization)
Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN)
Convolutional Layers, Pooling Layers
Filter/Kernels and Strides
Applications (Image Classification, Object Detection)
Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN)
Basic RNN vs. LSTM vs. GRU
Time-Series Prediction and NLP Applications
Vanishing and Exploding Gradients Problem
Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs)
Generator and Discriminator
Training Process
Applications (Image Generation, Data Augmentation)

8. Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Text Preprocessing
Tokenization, Stopwords, Lemmatization, Stemming
Bag of Words, TF-IDF
Word Embeddings
Word2Vec, GloVe, FastText
Sentence Embeddings (BERT, RoBERTa, GPT)
Sequence Models
Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs)
LSTM and GRU
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
8. Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Transformer Architecture
Self-Attention Mechanism
Encoder-Decoder Model
BERT, GPT, T5 Models
Text Classification
Sentiment Analysis, Named Entity Recognition (NER)
Language Generation
Text Summarization
Machine Translation

9. Model Evaluation and Metrics

Classification Metrics
Accuracy, Precision, Recall, F1-Score
Confusion Matrix
ROC Curve, AUC
Regression Metrics
Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Mean Squared Error (MSE)
R-Squared and Adjusted R-Squared
Cross-Validation
K-Fold Cross-Validation
Leave-One-Out Cross-Validation
Stratified K-Fold
Hyperparameter Tuning
Grid Search
Random Search
Bayesian Optimization

10. Advanced Topics

Transfer Learning
Pre-trained Models (VGG, ResNet, BERT)
Fine-Tuning and Feature Extraction
Attention Mechanism
Self-Attention, Multi-Head Attention
Applications in NLP and Vision
Reinforcement Learning in Deep Learning
Actor-Critic, A3C, Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO)
Federated Learning
Distributed Learning Frameworks
Privacy-Preserving ML
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
11. Tools and Libraries for AI/ML
Python Libraries
NumPy, Pandas
Scikit-learn
TensorFlow, Keras, PyTorch
OpenCV for Computer Vision
NLTK, SpaCy for NLP
Cloud Platforms
Google Colab
AWS Sagemaker
Azure ML

12. Deployment and Production

Model Serialization (Pickle, Joblib)
Flask/Django for Model Deployment
Serving Models with TensorFlow Serving, FastAPI
Monitoring and Maintaining Models in Production

13. Practice & Common Beginner Mistakes

Practice Tasks
Common Beginner Mistakes
 1. INTRODUCTION TO AI AND ML
1.1 What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the ability of machines or computer programs
to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. These tasks can
include understanding language, recognizing patterns, solving problems,
and making decisions.
Simple explanation:
AI is when machines are made smart enough to think and act like
humans.
Examples:
Voice assistants like Alexa
Image recognition systems
Chatbots
Self-driving cars

1.2 Types of AI: Narrow AI vs. General AI

Narrow AI (Weak AI):
Designed to perform one specific task
Cannot do anything beyond its programming
Examples: Email spam filters, facial recognition, recommendation systems
General AI (Strong AI):
Still under research and development
Can learn and perform any intellectual task a human can do
Would have reasoning, memory, and decision-making abilities similar to a
human

1.3 What is Machine Learning (ML)?

Machine Learning is a subfield of AI that allows machines to learn from
data and improve their performance over time without being explicitly
programmed.
Simple explanation:
Instead of writing rules for everything, we give the machine data, and it
figures out the rules on its own.
Example:
A machine learns to identify spam emails by studying thousands of
examples.
 1. INTRODUCTION TO AI AND ML
1.4 Supervised vs. Unsupervised vs. Reinforcement Learning
Supervised Learning:
The training data includes both input and the correct output (labels)
The model learns by comparing its output with the correct output
Example: Predicting house prices based on features like size, location, etc.
Unsupervised Learning:
The data has no labels
The model tries to find patterns or groupings in the data
Example: Grouping customers based on purchasing behavior
Reinforcement Learning:
The model learns through trial and error
It receives rewards or penalties based on its actions
Example: A robot learning to walk or a program learning to play chess

1.5 Key Terminologies

Model:
A program or function that makes predictions or decisions based on data.
Feature:
An input variable used in making predictions (e.g., age, income,
temperature).
Target:
The value the model is trying to predict (e.g., house price, spam or not).
Algorithm:
A step-by-step method or set of rules used to train the model.
Training:
The process of teaching the model using a dataset.
Testing:
Evaluating the trained model on new, unseen data to measure its
accuracy.

1.6 Applications of AI and ML

Recommendation systems (YouTube, Amazon, Netflix)
Fraud detection in banking
Language translation
Healthcare diagnosis
Self-driving vehicles
Stock market prediction
Chatbots and customer support
Social media content moderation
 1. INTRODUCTION TO AI AND ML
1.7 Difference Between AI, ML, and Deep Learning (DL)

Term Description

Artificial Intelligence (AI) The overall field focused on creating intelligent machines

Machine Learning (ML) A subset of AI where machines learn from data

Deep Learning (DL) A specialized type of ML that uses neural networks inspired by the
human brain

Visual analogy:
AI is the broader concept, ML is a part of AI, and DL is a part of ML.

Artificial Intelligence

Machine Learning

Deep Learning
 2. MATHEMATICS FOR ML/AI
Mathematics is the foundation of AI and Machine Learning. It helps us
understand how algorithms work under the hood and how to fine-tune
models for better performance.

2.1 Linear Algebra

Linear Algebra deals with numbers organized in arrays and how these
arrays interact. It is used in almost every ML algorithm.

2.1.1 Vectors, Matrices, and Tensors

Vector: A 1D array of numbers. Example: [3, 5, 7]
Used to represent features like height, weight, age.
Matrix: A 2D array (rows and columns).
Example:

Used to store datasets or model weights.

Tensor: A generalization of vectors and matrices to more dimensions (3D

or higher).
Example: Used in deep learning models like images (3D tensor: width,
height, color channels).

2.1.2 Matrix Operations

Addition/Subtraction: Add or subtract corresponding elements of two
matrices.
Multiplication: Used to combine weights and inputs in ML models.
Transpose: Flip a matrix over its diagonal.
Dot Product: Fundamental in calculating output in neural networks.

2.1.3 Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors

Eigenvector: A direction that doesn't change during a transformation.
Eigenvalue: Tells how much the eigenvector is stretched or shrunk.

These are used in algorithms like Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for
dimensionality reduction.
 2. MATHEMATICS FOR ML/AI
2.2 Probability and Statistics
Probability helps machines make decisions under uncertainty, and
statistics helps us understand data and model performance.

2.2.1 Mean, Variance, Standard Deviation

Mean: The average value.
Variance: How spread out the values are from the mean.
Standard Deviation: The square root of variance. It measures how much
the values vary.
Used to understand the distribution and behavior of features in datasets.

2.2.2 Bayes Theorem

A mathematical formula to calculate conditional probability:

Used in Naive Bayes classifiers for spam detection, document classification,

etc.

2.2.3 Conditional Probability

The probability of one event occurring given that another event has
already occurred.
Example:
Probability that a user clicks an ad given that they are between 20-30
years old.

2.2.4 Probability Distributions

Normal Distribution: Bell-shaped curve. Common in real-world data like
height, exam scores.
Binomial Distribution: Used for yes/no type outcomes. Example: Flipping a
coin 10 times.
Poisson Distribution: For events happening over a time period. Example:
Number of customer calls per hour.
These distributions help in modeling randomness in data.
 2. MATHEMATICS FOR ML/AI
2.3 Calculus for Optimization
Calculus helps in training models by optimizing them to reduce errors.

2.3.1 Derivatives and Gradients

Derivative: Measures how a function changes as its input changes.
Gradient: A vector of derivatives that tells the slope of a function in multi-
dimensions.
Used to find the direction in which the model should adjust its weights.

2.3.2 Gradient Descent

An optimization algorithm used to minimize the loss (error) function.
How it works:
Start with random values
Calculate the gradient (slope)
Move slightly in the opposite direction of the gradient
Repeat until the loss is minimized
Gradient Descent is the core of many training algorithms in ML and DL.
 3. DATA PREPROCESSING
Before feeding data into any machine learning model, it must be cleaned,
transformed, and prepared. This step is called data preprocessing, and it is
one of the most important stages in building accurate ML models.

3.1 Data Cleaning

Real-world data is often messy. Data cleaning means identifying and fixing
errors in the dataset.
3.1.1 Missing Values
Missing values can be due to incomplete forms, sensor errors, etc.
Techniques to handle missing data:
Remove rows/columns with too many missing values
Fill (impute) missing values using:
Mean/Median/Mode
Forward/Backward fill
Predictive models (like KNN)

3.1.2 Outliers
Outliers are data points that are very different from others.
They can distort results and reduce model performance.
Detection methods:
Box plot, Z-score, IQR method
Handling outliers:
Remove them
Transform data (e.g., log scaling)
Cap them (set a maximum/minimum)

3.2 Data Normalization and Standardization

Helps scale numeric data so that features contribute equally to the model.
Normalization (Min-Max Scaling):
Scales all values between 0 and 1
Formula:

Used when the data is not normally distributed

Standardization (Z-score Scaling):
Centers the data around mean = 0 and standard deviation = 1
Formula:

Used when data is normally distributed

 3. DATA PREPROCESSING
3.3 Encoding Categorical Variables
ML models work with numbers, not text. Categorical data needs to be
converted into numerical form.
Label Encoding:
Assigns each unique category a number.
Example:

One-Hot Encoding:
Creates new binary columns for each category.
Example:

Label encoding is good for ordinal data (ranked), while one-hot encoding
is best for nominal data (non-ranked).

3.4 Feature Scaling

Ensures features are on the same scale so the model can learn effectively.
Min-Max Scaling:
Scales features between 0 and 1.
Good for algorithms like KNN, neural networks.
Z-score Scaling (Standardization):
Useful for models that assume normality, like linear regression or logistic
regression.
Scaling is crucial for models that use distance or gradient-based optimization.

3.5 Feature Engineering

Creating new features or modifying existing ones to improve model
performance.
Polynomial Features:
Create new features by raising existing features to a power.
Example: From x, create x², x³
Binning (Discretization):
Convert continuous data into categories.
Example: Age → [0–18], [19–35], [36–60], 60+
Feature engineering can significantly boost the predictive power of a model.
 3. DATA PREPROCESSING
3.6 Handling Imbalanced Data
In classification, if one class dominates (e.g., 95% non-fraud, 5% fraud),
models may ignore the minority class. This is called class imbalance.
SMOTE (Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique):
Creates synthetic examples of the minority class using nearest neighbors.
Undersampling:
Remove some samples from the majority class.
Oversampling:
Duplicate or generate more samples of the minority class.
Balancing data improves the ability of the model to correctly predict both
classes.
 4. SUPERVISED LEARNING ALGORITHMS
Supervised learning uses labeled data, meaning the model learns from input-
output pairs (X → y). The algorithm tries to map inputs (features) to correct
outputs (targets/labels).

4.1 Linear Regression

Used for predicting continuous values (e.g., predicting house price,
temperature).

4.1.1 Simple vs. Multiple Linear Regression

Simple Linear Regression: One input (X) to predict one output (Y).
Example: Predicting salary from years of experience.
Multiple Linear Regression: Multiple inputs (X1, X2, ..., Xn).
Example: Predicting price based on area, location, and age.

4.1.2 Gradient Descent and Normal Equation

Gradient Descent: Iterative method to minimize error (cost function).
Normal Equation: Direct way to find weights using linear algebra:

Works for small datasets.

 4. SUPERVISED LEARNING ALGORITHMS

4.1.3 Regularization (L1, L2)

Prevents overfitting by adding a penalty:
L1 (Lasso): Can reduce coefficients to 0 (feature selection).
L2 (Ridge): Shrinks coefficients but doesn’t make them 0.
4.2 Logistic Regression
Used for classification problems (e.g., spam vs. not spam).

4.2.1 Binary vs. Multiclass Classification

Binary: 2 outcomes (e.g., 0 or 1)
Multiclass: More than 2 classes (handled using One-vs-Rest or Softmax)

4.2.2 Sigmoid and Cost Function

Sigmoid Function: Converts outputs to values between 0 and 1.

Cost Function: Log loss used to measure prediction error.

4.2.3 Regularization
L1 and L2 regularization help prevent overfitting in logistic regression as
well.
 4. SUPERVISED LEARNING ALGORITHMS
4.3 K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN)
A simple classification (or regression) algorithm that uses proximity.

4.3.1 Distance Metrics

Euclidean Distance: Straight line between two points.
Manhattan Distance: Sum of absolute differences.

4.3.2 Choosing K
K is the number of neighbors to consider.
Too low K → sensitive to noise
Too high K → model becomes less flexible

4.3.3 Advantages & Disadvantages

Simple and easy to implement
Slow for large datasets, sensitive to irrelevant features

4.4 Support Vector Machines (SVM)

Powerful classification model for small to medium-sized datasets.
 4. SUPERVISED LEARNING ALGORITHMS
4.4.1 Hyperplanes and Margins
SVM finds the best hyperplane that separates data with maximum
margin.

4.4.2 Linear vs. Non-Linear SVM

Linear SVM: Works when data is linearly separable.
Non-linear SVM: Uses kernel trick for complex datasets.

4.4.3 Kernel Trick

Transforms data into higher dimensions to make it separable.
Common kernels: RBF (Gaussian), Polynomial, Sigmoid

4.5 Decision Trees

Tree-like structure used for classification and regression.

4.5.1 Gini Impurity and Entropy

Measures how pure a node is:
Gini Impurity: Probability of misclassification.
Entropy: Measure of randomness/information.

4.5.2 Overfitting and Pruning

Overfitting: Tree memorizes training data.
Pruning: Removes unnecessary branches to reduce overfitting.
 4. SUPERVISED LEARNING ALGORITHMS
4.6 Random Forest
An ensemble of decision trees to improve accuracy and reduce overfitting.

4.6.1 Bootstrapping
Randomly selects subsets of data to train each tree.
4.6.2 Bagging
Combines predictions of multiple trees (majority vote or average).
4.6.3 Feature Importance
Measures which features contribute most to model prediction.

4.7 Gradient Boosting Machines (GBM)

Boosting is an ensemble method where models are trained sequentially.

4.7.1 XGBoost, LightGBM, CatBoost

Advanced boosting libraries:
XGBoost: Popular, fast, and accurate
LightGBM: Faster, uses leaf-wise growth
CatBoost: Handles categorical features automatically
 4. SUPERVISED LEARNING ALGORITHMS
4.7.2 Hyperparameter Tuning
Adjust parameters like:
Learning rate
Number of estimators (trees)
Max depth
Tools: GridSearchCV, RandomSearchCV
4.7.3 Early Stopping
Stops training if the model stops improving on validation set.

4.8 Naive Bayes

Probabilistic classifier based on Bayes' Theorem and strong independence
assumption.

4.8.1 Gaussian, Multinomial, Bernoulli

Gaussian NB: For continuous features (assumes normal distribution)
Multinomial NB: For text data, counts of words
Bernoulli NB: For binary features (0/1)
4.8.2 Assumptions and Applications
Assumes all features are independent (rarely true but still works well)
Commonly used in spam detection, sentiment analysis, document
classification
 5. UNSUPERVISED LEARNING ALGORITHMS
Unsupervised learning finds hidden patterns in unlabeled data. Unlike
supervised learning, it doesn't rely on labeled outputs (no predefined target).

5.1 K-Means Clustering

5.1.1 Algorithm Overview

K-Means is a clustering algorithm that divides data into K clusters based
on similarity.
It works by:
a. Selecting K random centroids.
b. Assigning each point to the nearest centroid.
c. Updating the centroid to the mean of its assigned points.
d. Repeating steps 2–3 until the centroids stop changing.
5.1.2 Elbow Method
Used to choose the optimal number of clusters (K).
Plot the number of clusters (K) vs. Within-Cluster-Sum-of-Squares (WCSS).
The point where the WCSS curve bends (elbow) is the best K.
5.1.3 K-Means++ Initialization
Improves basic K-Means by smartly selecting initial centroids, reducing the
chance of poor clustering.
Starts with one random centroid, then selects the next ones based on
distance from the current ones (probabilistically).

5.2 Hierarchical Clustering

 5. UNSUPERVISED LEARNING ALGORITHMS
5.2.1 Agglomerative vs. Divisive Clustering
Agglomerative (bottom-up): Start with each point as its own cluster and
merge the closest clusters.
Divisive (top-down): Start with one large cluster and recursively split it.
Agglomerative is more commonly used.

5.2.2 Dendrogram and Optimal Cut

A dendrogram is a tree-like diagram that shows how clusters are formed
at each step.
The height of branches represents the distance between clusters.
Cutting the dendrogram at a certain height gives the desired number of
clusters.

5.3 Principal Component Analysis (PCA)

PCA is a dimensionality reduction technique used to simplify datasets
while retaining most of the important information.

5.3.1 Dimensionality Reduction

PCA transforms the data into a new coordinate system with fewer
dimensions (called principal components).
Useful for visualization, speeding up algorithms, and avoiding the curse of
dimensionality.
5.3.2 Eigenvalue Decomposition
PCA is based on eigenvectors and eigenvalues of the covariance matrix of
the data.
The eigenvectors define the new axes (principal components).
The eigenvalues indicate the amount of variance each component
captures.
5.3.3 Scree Plot and Explained Variance
Scree Plot: A plot of eigenvalues to help decide how many components to
keep.
The explained variance ratio shows how much of the data’s variance is
captured by each component.
 5. UNSUPERVISED LEARNING ALGORITHMS
5.4 DBSCAN (Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise)
DBSCAN is a density-based clustering algorithm that groups closely
packed points and marks outliers as noise.

5.4.1 Density-Based Clustering

Unlike K-Means, DBSCAN doesn't require specifying the number of
clusters.
Clusters are formed based on dense regions in the data.

5.4.2 Epsilon and MinPts Parameters

Epsilon (ε): Radius around a point to search for neighbors.
MinPts: Minimum number of points required to form a dense region.
Points are classified as:
Core Point: Has MinPts within ε.
Border Point: Not a core but within ε of a core.
Noise: Neither core nor border.
 6. REINFORCEMENT LEARNING (RL)
6.1 Introduction to Reinforcement Learning
Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a type of machine learning where an agent
learns to make decisions by interacting with an environment. It is inspired
by how humans learn from experience — by trial and error.

The agent performs an action

The environment responds with a reward
The agent uses this feedback to learn better actions over time
Unlike supervised learning, RL doesn’t rely on labeled data. Instead, it uses
rewards or penalties to guide learning.

6.2 Key Concepts

Agent: The learner or decision maker (e.g., a robot, self-driving car).
Environment: Everything the agent interacts with (e.g., a maze, a game).
State: A snapshot of the current situation (e.g., position in a maze).
Action: A move or decision made by the agent (e.g., turn left).
Reward: Feedback from the environment (e.g., +1 for reaching goal, -1 for
hitting a wall).
The goal of the agent is to maximize cumulative rewards over time.

6.3 Markov Decision Process (MDP)

RL problems are often modeled as Markov Decision Processes (MDPs).
An MDP includes:
S: Set of states
A: Set of actions
P: Transition probabilities (P(s' | s, a))
R: Reward function
γ (gamma): Discount factor (how much future rewards are valued)
The "Markov" property means the next state only depends on the current
state and action, not on previous ones.
 6. REINFORCEMENT LEARNING (RL)
6.4 Q-Learning and Deep Q-Networks (DQN)
Q-Learning:
A model-free algorithm that learns the value (Q-value) of taking an action
in a state.
Uses the formula:

Where:
s: current state
a: action
r: reward
s': next state
α: learning rate
γ: discount factor
Deep Q-Networks (DQN):
When the state/action space is too large, a neural network is used to
approximate Q-values.
Combines Q-Learning with Deep Learning.
Used in Atari games and robotics.

6.5 Policy Gradients and Actor-Critic Methods

Policy Gradients:
Instead of learning value functions, learn the policy directly (probability
distribution over actions).
Use gradient ascent to improve the policy based on the reward received.
Actor-Critic Methods:
Combine the best of both worlds:
Actor: chooses the action
Critic: evaluates how good the action was (value function)
More stable and efficient than pure policy gradients.
 6. REINFORCEMENT LEARNING (RL)
6.6 Exploration vs. Exploitation
Exploration: Trying new actions to discover their effects (important early in
training).
Exploitation: Choosing the best-known action for maximum reward.
RL must balance both:
Too much exploration = slow learning
Too much exploitation = stuck in local optimum
Common strategy: ε-greedy
Choose a random action with probability ε
Otherwise, choose the best-known action
 7. NEURAL NETWORKS & DEEP LEARNING
7.1 Introduction to Neural Networks
A neural network is a computer model inspired by the human brain. It
consists of neurons (nodes) organized in layers, capable of learning
patterns from data.

7.1.1 Perceptrons
The perceptron is the simplest type of neural network, with:
Inputs → Weights → Summation → Activation Function → Output
It's like a yes/no decision maker (binary classification).

7.1.2 Activation Functions

These introduce non-linearity, allowing the network to learn complex
functions:
Sigmoid: Outputs between 0 and 1. Good for probability-based outputs.
ReLU (Rectified Linear Unit): Most popular. Fast, reduces vanishing
gradient.
ReLU(x) = max(0, x)
Tanh: Like sigmoid but outputs between -1 and 1.

7.1.3 Forward Propagation and Backpropagation

Forward Propagation: Input data flows through the network to produce an
output.
Backpropagation: Calculates the error and updates weights using
gradients (from loss function).
This is how neural networks learn from data.

7.1.4 Loss Functions

They measure how far off the prediction is from the actual result.
MSE (Mean Squared Error): Used in regression problems.
Cross-Entropy Loss: Used in classification tasks.

7.2 Deep Neural Networks (DNN)

A Deep Neural Network has multiple hidden layers between input and
output.
 7. NEURAL NETWORKS & DEEP LEARNING
7.2.1 Architecture and Layers
Input Layer: Where the data comes in
Hidden Layers: Where computation happens (many neurons per layer)
Output Layer: Final predictions

7.2.2 Training Process and Optimizers

During training, the network:
Makes predictions
Calculates the loss
Updates weights via optimizers like:
SGD (Stochastic Gradient Descent)
Adam (adaptive learning rate)
RMSProp

7.2.3 Overfitting and Regularization

Overfitting happens when the model learns noise instead of patterns.
Regularization techniques help:
Dropout: Randomly turns off neurons during training.
L2 Regularization: Penalizes large weights (weight decay).

7.3 Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN)

CNNs are specialized for image data.

7.3.1 Convolutional Layers, Pooling Layers

Convolutional Layers: Apply filters to detect features (edges, corners).
Pooling Layers: Reduce size of feature maps (e.g., Max Pooling).

7.3.2 Filters/Kernels and Strides

Filters: Small matrix to slide over input to extract features.
Strides: Step size of the filter as it moves.

7.3.3 Applications
Image Classification
Face Recognition
Object Detection
 7. NEURAL NETWORKS & DEEP LEARNING
7.4 Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN)
RNNs are designed for sequential data (time series, text, etc.).

7.4.1 Basic RNN vs. LSTM vs. GRU

Basic RNN: Loops through time steps but suffers from memory issues.
LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory): Handles long dependencies well.
GRU (Gated Recurrent Unit): Similar to LSTM but faster.

7.4.2 Time-Series Prediction and NLP Applications

Predict stock prices, weather, or language sequences.
Used in chatbots, translation, and speech recognition.

7.4.3 Vanishing and Exploding Gradients

Problem during training of RNNs where gradients shrink (vanish) or
explode.
LSTM and GRU solve this with gate mechanisms.

7.5 Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs)

GANs are powerful models for generating new data.
 7. NEURAL NETWORKS & DEEP LEARNING
7.5.1 Generator and Discriminator
Generator: Creates fake data
Discriminator: Tries to distinguish real from fake data
They compete with each other (like a forger and a detective).

7.5.2 Training Process

Generator tries to fool the discriminator
Discriminator improves to detect fakes
They both improve over time — leading to realistic generated data

7.5.3 Applications
Image Generation (e.g., fake faces)
Art and Style Transfer
Data Augmentation for training other ML models
 8. NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING (NLP)
NLP helps computers understand, interpret, and generate human language.
It's widely used in applications like chatbots, translation tools, and voice
assistants.

8.1 Text Preprocessing

Before using text in machine learning models, we need to clean and
convert it into a format the computer understands.

8.1.1 Tokenization
Breaking text into smaller parts like words or sentences.
Example: "I love AI" → ["I", "love", "AI"]

8.1.2 Stopwords
Removing common words that do not add much meaning (like “is”, “the”,
“and”).

8.1.3 Stemming
Cutting words down to their root form.
Example: “playing”, “played” → “play”

8.1.4 Lemmatization
Similar to stemming but uses grammar to find the proper base word.
Example: “better” → “good”

8.1.5 Bag of Words (BoW)

Converts text into numbers based on word counts in a document.

8.1.6 TF-IDF
Gives importance to words that appear often in one document but not in
others. Helps identify keywords.
 8. NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING (NLP)
8.2 Word Embeddings
Word embeddings turn words into vectors (numbers) so that a machine
can understand their meaning and context.
8.2.1 Word2Vec
A model that learns how words are related based on their surrounding
words.
8.2.2 GloVe
Learns word meanings by looking at how often words appear together.
8.2.3 FastText
Similar to Word2Vec but also looks at parts of words, which helps with
unknown words.
8.2.4 Sentence Embeddings (BERT, RoBERTa, GPT)
These models convert full sentences into vectors. They understand context
much better than older models.

8.3 Sequence Models

These models are good for processing data where order matters, like text.
8.3.1 RNN (Recurrent Neural Networks)
Good for learning from sequences, such as sentences.
8.3.2 LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory)
An advanced RNN that remembers long-term information.
8.3.3 GRU (Gated Recurrent Unit)
A simpler version of LSTM that works faster and often just as well.

8.4 Transformer Architecture

Transformers are a powerful model used in almost all modern NLP
systems.
8.4.1 Self-Attention Mechanism
This allows the model to focus on important words in a sentence, no
matter where they appear.
8.4.2 Encoder-Decoder Model
Used in tasks like translation where the model reads input (encoder) and
generates output (decoder).
8.4.3 Examples:
BERT: Great for understanding text.
GPT: Great for generating text.
T5: Can both understand and generate text for many tasks.
 8. NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING (NLP)
8.5 Text Classification
Classify text into categories.
Examples:
Sentiment Analysis: Is a review positive or negative?
Named Entity Recognition (NER): Find names, places, dates, etc. in text.

8.6 Language Generation

Generate new text from existing input.
8.6.1 Text Summarization
Shortens a long document while keeping important points.
8.6.2 Machine Translation
Translates text from one language to another (like English to Hindi).
 9. MODEL EVALUATION AND METRICS
Model evaluation helps us check how well our machine learning models are
performing. We use different metrics depending on whether it's a
classification or regression problem.

9.1 Classification Metrics

Used when your model predicts categories or classes (e.g., spam or not
spam).

9.1.1 Accuracy
How often the model is correct.
Formula: (Correct Predictions) / (Total Predictions)

9.1.2 Precision
Out of all predicted positives, how many were actually positive?
Used when false positives are costly.
Formula: TP / (TP + FP)

9.1.3 Recall (Sensitivity)

Out of all actual positives, how many were predicted correctly?
Used when missing positives is costly.
Formula: TP / (TP + FN)

9.1.4 F1-Score
Balance between precision and recall.
Formula: 2 * (Precision * Recall) / (Precision + Recall)

9.1.5 Confusion Matrix

A table showing True Positives, False Positives, False Negatives, and True
Negatives.

9.1.6 ROC Curve (Receiver Operating Characteristic)

Shows the trade-off between True Positive Rate and False Positive Rate.

9.1.7 AUC (Area Under the Curve)

Measures the entire area under the ROC curve.
Higher AUC = better performance.
 9. MODEL EVALUATION AND METRICS
9.2 Regression Metrics
Used when the model predicts continuous values (like house price,
temperature).

9.2.1 Mean Absolute Error (MAE)

Average of the absolute errors.
Easy to understand.

9.2.2 Mean Squared Error (MSE)

Average of squared errors.
Penalizes large errors more than MAE.

9.2.3 R-Squared (R²)

Explains how much variance in the output is explained by the model.
Ranges from 0 to 1 (higher is better).

9.2.4 Adjusted R-Squared

Like R², but adjusts for the number of predictors (features).
Useful when comparing models with different numbers of features.

9.3 Cross-Validation
Used to test model performance on different splits of the data.

9.3.1 K-Fold Cross-Validation

Split data into k equal parts. Train on k-1 and test on the remaining part.
Repeat k times.

9.3.2 Leave-One-Out Cross-Validation (LOOCV)

A special case of K-Fold where k = number of data points. Very slow but
thorough.

9.3.3 Stratified K-Fold

Same as K-Fold, but keeps the ratio of classes the same in each fold.
Useful for imbalanced datasets.
 9. MODEL EVALUATION AND METRICS
9.4 Hyperparameter Tuning
Hyperparameters are settings that control how a model learns (like
learning rate, depth of a tree, etc.).

9.4.1 Grid Search

Tests all combinations of given hyperparameter values.

9.4.2 Random Search

Randomly selects combinations. Faster than Grid Search.

9.4.3 Bayesian Optimization

Uses past results to pick the next best combination. Smart and efficient.
 10. ADVANCED TOPICS
These are modern machine learning methods used in advanced real-world
applications such as chatbots, recommendation systems, self-driving cars,
and privacy-focused AI.

10.1 Transfer Learning

Instead of training a model from scratch, we use a model that has already
been trained on a large dataset and apply it to a new, similar task.
Pre-trained Models
These are models trained on huge datasets.
Examples:
VGG, ResNet – for images
BERT – for text
Fine-Tuning
Slightly updating the pre-trained model using your own smaller dataset.
Feature Extraction
Using the pre-trained model to extract useful features and then using
those features for your own model or task.

Benefit: Saves training time and works well even with limited data.

10.2 Attention Mechanism

This helps the model decide which parts of the input data are most
important.
Self-Attention
Every part of the input focuses on every other part to understand context
better.
Used in NLP (Natural Language Processing) and transformers.
Multi-Head Attention
Applies attention multiple times in parallel to capture different
relationships within the data.
Applications
In NLP: translation, summarization, question-answering
In vision: image recognition with Vision Transformers
 10. ADVANCED TOPICS
10.2 Attention Mechanism

10.3 Reinforcement Learning in Deep Learning

Combining deep learning with reinforcement learning for decision-
making tasks.
Actor-Critic
Two models work together:
Actor: selects the best action
Critic: evaluates how good the action was
A3C (Asynchronous Advantage Actor-Critic)
Uses multiple agents to learn in parallel, which speeds up learning and
increases stability.
PPO (Proximal Policy Optimization)
An improved and stable way to train reinforcement learning agents. Used
in games, robotics, etc.

Artificial
Intelligence (AI)

Machine
Learning (ML)

Deep Reinforcement
Learning (DL) Learning (RL)
 10. ADVANCED TOPICS
10.4 Federated Learning
Model training happens across many devices without collecting data in a
central server. Each device keeps its data private and only sends model
updates.
Distributed Learning Frameworks
Used when data is spread across users, hospitals, or devices. Examples
include Google’s keyboard predictions.
Privacy-Preserving ML
Since data never leaves the device, user privacy is protected. This is useful
in healthcare, banking, and personal mobile applications.
 11. TOOLS AND LIBRARIES FOR AI/ML
These tools help you build, train, and deploy AI/ML models more efficiently.
They provide ready-to-use functions so you don’t need to code everything
from scratch.

11.1 Python Libraries

Python is the most popular language in AI/ML. These libraries make your
work faster and easier:
NumPy
Used for numerical computing.
Supports arrays, matrices, and linear algebra operations.
Pandas
Used for data manipulation and analysis.
You can load data, clean it, and analyze it in tabular formats (DataFrames).
Scikit-learn
A powerful machine learning library.
Includes ready-to-use models like Linear Regression, SVM, Random Forest,
KNN, and more.
TensorFlow & Keras
Used for building deep learning models.
TensorFlow: low-level control
Keras: high-level interface, easier to use
PyTorch
An alternative to TensorFlow, widely used in research and development.
It’s flexible, fast, and dynamic (supports on-the-fly computation graphs).
OpenCV
Used for computer vision tasks like image processing, object detection,
face recognition, etc.
NLTK & SpaCy
Natural Language Processing (NLP) libraries.
NLTK: good for learning, includes many basic NLP tasks
SpaCy: industrial-strength NLP, faster and more efficient
 11. TOOLS AND LIBRARIES FOR AI/ML
11.2 Cloud Platforms
Cloud platforms help you run your models on powerful servers without
needing your own hardware.

Google Colab
Free online Jupyter Notebook
Supports GPU/TPU
Great for students and beginners
AWS SageMaker
Amazon’s cloud ML platform
Supports training, tuning, and deploying models at scale
Used in enterprise-level applications
Azure ML
Microsoft’s machine learning platform
Integrates well with other Microsoft tools (e.g., Excel, Power BI)
Provides autoML, drag-and-drop pipelines, and more
 12. DEPLOYMENT AND PRODUCTION
12.1 Model Serialization
What it means:
After training your machine learning model, you save (serialize) it to use
later without retraining.
Popular tools:
Pickle – A Python library to serialize and deserialize Python objects.
Joblib – Similar to Pickle but better for large NumPy arrays.
Example:

12.2 Flask/Django for Model Deployment

These are web frameworks that let you expose your model as an API
endpoint, so other apps or users can access it via the internet.
Flask: Lightweight and easier for quick ML model APIs.
Django: Heavier but better for large web applications with built-in admin,
security, and ORM.
Flask Example:
 12. DEPLOYMENT AND PRODUCTION
12.3 Serving Models with TensorFlow Serving, FastAPI
TensorFlow Serving:
Used to deploy TensorFlow models in production. It supports versioning
and high-performance serving with REST/gRPC.
FastAPI:
A modern, fast (high-performance) framework for building APIs with
automatic docs, great for production-grade ML APIs.
FastAPI Example:

12.4 Monitoring and Maintaining Models in Production

Once your model is live, you need to ensure it continues to perform well.
What to monitor:
Model accuracy degradation (due to data drift)
Response time
Error rates
System metrics (CPU, memory)
Tools:
Prometheus + Grafana for system and application monitoring
MLflow or Evidently.ai for tracking model performance over time
 13. PRACTICE & COMMON BEGINNER MISTAKES
13.1 Practice Tasks
To strengthen understanding, here are simple practice tasks for each core
concept:

Topic Mini Practice Task

Linear Regression Predict house prices using a dataset with features like area, rooms,
and location.

Logistic Regression Build a binary classifier to detect spam emails.

K-Means Clustering Group customers by shopping behavior (customer segmentation).

PCA Reduce dimensions in the Iris dataset and visualize clusters.

Decision Trees Classify if a person will buy a product based on age, income, etc.

CNNs Classify hand-written digits using the MNIST dataset.

RNNs Predict the next word in a sentence using a small corpus.

GANs Generate new handwritten digits after training on MNIST.

NLP Build a sentiment analysis model on product reviews.

13.2 Common Beginner Mistakes

General ML Mistakes
Using test data during training
Not normalizing/scaling features
Ignoring class imbalance in classification tasks
Forgetting to check for data leakage
Not splitting the dataset correctly (Train/Validation/Test)
Neural Network Mistakes
Using too many/too few layers without tuning
Choosing wrong activation/loss functions
Ignoring overfitting (no dropout or regularization)
NLP Mistakes
Feeding raw text without preprocessing
Using TF-IDF on small datasets without context
Confusing stemming with lemmatization
Deployment Mistakes
Not checking model performance after deployment
Ignoring real-time latency
No monitoring/logging in place
Check Out
Just Tap For Link
Was this post helpful ?

Follow Our 2nd Account

Follow For More

Tap Here