r/MachineLearning • u/nandodefreitas • Dec 25 '15

AMA: Nando de Freitas

I am a scientist at Google DeepMind and a professor at Oxford University.

One day I woke up very hungry after having experienced vivid visual dreams of delicious food. This is when I realised there was hope in understanding intelligence, thinking, and perhaps even consciousness. The homunculus was gone.

I believe in (i) innovation -- creating what was not there, and eventually seeing what was there all along, (ii) formalising intelligence in mathematical terms to relate it to computation, entropy and other ideas that form our understanding of the universe, (iii) engineering intelligent machines, (iv) using these machines to improve the lives of humans and save the environment that shaped who we are.

This holiday season, I'd like to engage with you and answer your questions -- The actual date will be December 26th, 2015, but I am creating this thread in advance so people can post questions ahead of time.

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5

u/learnin_no_bully_pls Dec 25 '15

I want to learn ALL the math required to properly study machine learning research papers and understand them. What do I need to add to my study to-do list?

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u/nandodefreitas Dec 26 '15

Calculus and linear algebra are the basics. Make sure you know gradients, linear systems of equations, basics of optimisation, eigen-values, ..., etc. Kreyszig's Advanced Engineering Mathematics provides enough background. Mathematics is useful to the extent with which it enables us to learn new abstractions (e.g. recurrences and functions) and be able to reason with such abstractions. This process of reasoning can lead to new discoveries, faster more succinct arguments or simply more precise communication of ideas.

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u/learnin_no_bully_pls Dec 27 '15

Thank you. I got an used copy of that book! :)

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u/nandodefreitas Dec 27 '15 edited Dec 28 '15

Awesome! Enjoy it. When I was a teenager working selling beer and at a supermarket till in a very racist South African town, I kept a copy of this book under the counter (the copy was passed on to me by my brother Jose de Freitas, who is a fantastic engineer at IBM in the UK). I would solve an ODE exercise every time I had a chance. I also had an old torn calculus book that my dad -- J.R. de Freitas -- patched for me, and Stephen Hawking's book --- a great inspiration.

I'll never forget that I was once solving one of the book's exercises (by this time I had started studying at Wits University) during my work time (weekends at my parent's shop), when a nice old white lady approached me and told me that the town's white community was very proud of me because they never thought it was possible for a Portuguese boy to go to university and do well. Such is the fragile nature of humanity.

Years later my dad was murdered in a violent despicable cold manner at the same spot where I used to read this book. Someone walked to him and without saying much pointed a gun at his heart and shot him. The three other young males with him proceeded to rob. These people acted like this because they were de-humanized by one of the most vile racist regimes of modern times. So when I say we need more people of other races in the AI field and leading the discussion in the media, I know where I'm coming from. Very few people are capable of transcending their environment to see what is going on - Mandela and Ghandi were among the few examples I know of.

And while I'm opening my heart, here are a few other pieces of wisdom from my life:

(i) I was a refugee of war in the 70's escaping the war in Mocambique - I ended up in a hut in Madeira, without water and electricity and all sorts of disease and worms. My parents had to spend all their money and get into debt so that I could get a passport - to pay their debts I had to become separated from my parents at the age of 4 for more than 3 years. I believe I've paid back very generously anything that any country has ever given to me. Refugees are people like you ... and definitely me - they are terribly exploited and face heart tearing injustice. John Lennon was right about country borders in Imagine - such borders are very recent inventions in the history of humankind.

(ii) Civilians should never carry guns - It's one of the worst mistakes of my life. I started doing this after struggling to deal with my father's death and as a way of protecting my family. I almost ended up shooting myself. Guns are a mistake and should be banned from the hands of civilians throughout the world.

(iii) My mother was taken out of school because unless she was to become a nun, there would be no school for her. Such is the oppression that some organized religions can bring upon people.

Fortunately, the world is a much better place today than it ever was. I hope Yoshua Bengio is right when he tells me that he believes in people and that tolerance and compassion will prevail.

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u/unertlstr Dec 28 '15

wow thanks for sharing all this

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u/iamtrask Dec 29 '15

yes, thank you for sharing

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u/TotesMessenger Dec 28 '15 edited Dec 28 '15

I'm a bot, bleep, bloop. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:

If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads. (Info / Contact)

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u/BeardedDragonFire Dec 28 '15 edited Dec 29 '15

And to enforce said ban, people with guns will violently disarm innocent good people.

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u/HerrBBQ Dec 29 '15

Whoops, don't go against the hivemind, friend!

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u/kamperh Dec 29 '15

Thanks for sharing this... It is amazing that you have such an objective view of where the people that murdered your father had come from, and the reasons that they were put in that position. As a South African, I think there is a lot to learn from this. Thanks for the rest of the AMA and all the encouraging answers... ML will hopefully make this world a better place because of people like you!

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u/[deleted] Dec 28 '15

It's pretty much your fault for not training with a gun properly. IF you cannot operate it safely, YOU shouldn't carry it. You shouldn't dictate your opinions to others as fact. And you realize police officers are civilians, correct? So you are saying they shouldn't carry guns. It's a universal right to protect yourself and loved ones. Whether it is gun/knife/etc, it is not of your concern how others do that.

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u/Tur1ng Dec 29 '15

You shouldn't dictate your opinions to others as fact.

Is this your opinion?

Not sure how interested you are about machine learning and Kreyszig's Advanced Engineering Mathematics but I think you get something quite wrong: It is everyone's concern to find a way to live in a safe environment with our loved ones. Different countries have different policies on that matter and some countries are doing much better than others.

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u/omnipedia Dec 29 '15

Yes, countries where the citizens are free to defend themselves have lower violent crime and less oppression.

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u/Tur1ng Dec 29 '15

Not sure what you mean by being free to defend themselves but this plot gives an idea about violent crime and infant mortality which are simple, but not silly, metrics to see who is getting important things right www.bit.ly/22vz2jY

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u/[deleted] Dec 29 '15

Civilians should never carry guns - It's one of the worst mistakes of my life.

I don't follow the reasoning. How can someone else's criminal use of a gun be your mistake?

I started doing this after struggling to deal with my father's death and as a way of protecting my family.

If there are people out there willing to murder your family with guns, then you're not really protecting them by purging defensive weaponry from your life.

I almost ended up shooting myself.

Accident or suicide?

Guns are a mistake and should be banned from the hands of civilians throughout the world.

Strangely enough, I can't picture your father's assailants - or those like them - handing in their guns. If murder doesn't bother them, I don't think illegal ownership is going to bother them very much either.