Unit 5

Recurrent Neural Networks: Introduc on – Recursive Neural Networks – Bidirec onal RNNs – Deep
Recurrent Networks – Applica ons: Image Genera on, Image Compression, Natural Language
Processing. Complete Auto encoder, Regularized Autoencoder, Stochas c Encoders and Decoders,
Contrac ve Encoders.

RNN (Recurrent Neural Network)

1. Sequen al Data Handling: RNNs are designed to process sequences where the order of data ma ers
(e.g., me series, text, speech).
2. Feedback Loop: Unlike feedforward networks, RNNs include loops that allow informa on to
persist—this gives them a kind of "memory" for previous inputs.
3. Memory: RNNs maintain a hidden state that updates as each new input in the sequence is
processed. This allows them to "remember" past inputs and use that informa on for future
predic ons.
4. Applica ons: Ideal for NLP (e.g., language modeling, transla on), me series forecas ng, speech
recogni on, etc.

Shows a simple RNN block:

 xt is the input at time t

 ht is the hidden state at time t
 The function f represents the transformation (usually a
combination of linear transformations and a non-linearity).
  The output yt is produced using a function g applied to the hidden
state ht.
 yt = g(ht) shows how the output at time t is computed from the
hidden state.

Unrolling the RNN (Bo om Diagram):

 Unfolding in Time: The feedback loop in the RNN is "unfolded" over me steps to make learning
possible using algorithms like backpropaga on through me (BPTT).

 Here, the loop is unrolled for k=3 me steps:

o Inputs x1, x2, x3 are sequen ally fed into the network.

o At each me step t, the hidden state ht is updated based on the current input xt and the
previous hidden state h{t-1}.

o The outputs y1, y2, y3 are generated at each corresponding step.

Nota on Used in Unfolding:

 xt: Input at me step t.

 ht: Hidden state at me step t.
 yt: Output at me step t.
 f: RNN cell func on that update hidden state.
 g: Output func on that maps hidden state to output.
Bidirec onal Recurrent Neural Networks (Bi-RNNs)
A Bidirectional RNN (Bi-RNN) is a type of neural network that processes data in both directions:
 Forward (left to right)
 Backward (right to left)
This allows it to learn from both past and future context for each point in the sequence.
In a regular RNN:
 The prediction at time t depends only on the previous time steps (past).
 This is limiting when the future is also important (e.g., in speech recognition or language
translation).
In a Bi-RNN:
 The model sees the entire sequence (past and future).
 This helps make more accurate predictions.

The diagram in the image shows:

 Input vectors going into both forward and backward RNN layers.
 Hidden states calculated at each time step in both directions.
  Output is formed by combining both directions' hidden states.

Inpu ng a sequence

 You feed in a sequence of vectors x 1,x2,…,xn_

 Each vector has the same size (dimensionality).
 The sequence can vary in length.

Dual Processing

This refers to processing the input in two direc ons:

 Forward direc on: Uses the current input and the previous hidden state (ht−1) to compute the
hidden state at me t.
 Backward direc on: Uses the current input and the next hidden state (ht+1) to compute the
hidden state at me t, going in reverse.

So, each me step’s final hidden state combines context from both before and a er the current step.

Compu ng the Hidden State

The hidden state at each step is calculated using:

 A non-linear ac va on func on (like tanh or ReLU)

 A weighted sum of:
o the current input
o the previous (or next) hidden state, depending on direc on

This mechanism gives the model memory—it can remember informa on from earlier or later steps.

Determining the Output

Each me step's output is computed using:

 A non-linear ac va on func on
 Applied to a weighted sum of:
o The hidden state at that step
o And some output-specific weights

This output can be:

 The final result (e.g., a predic on), or

 An input to another layer in a deeper network
Training the Network

Training is done using supervised learning, where:

 The goal is to minimize the error between predicted and actual output
 This is done using backpropaga on through me (BPTT)

The formula in the image shows how outputs are calculated:

BPTT – Backpropaga on Through Time

Bi-RNNs are trained using BPTT. The process is:

1. Roll out the en re network across me.

2. Calculate errors at each me step.
3. Backpropagate the error through all me steps.
4. Update weights using gradient descent.

However, because forward and backward passes in a BRNN occur simultaneously, upda ng the weights
for the two processes may occur at the same me. This produces inaccurate outcomes. Thus, the
following approach is used to train a BRNN to accommodate forward and backward passes individually

Advantages of Bidirec onal RNN

1. Context from Both Past and Future

o Regular RNNs only use the past data (le to right).
o Bi-RNNs use both past and future (le to right and right to le ).
o This means be er understanding of the full sentence or sequence.
o 👉 Useful in language tasks where meaning depends on the whole context.
2. Enhanced Accuracy
o By using more context (future + past), predic ons are more precise.
o This improves performance on tasks like speech or emo on recogni on.
3. Efficient with Variable-Length Sequences
 o Bi-RNNs don’t require all sequences to be the same length, unlike some models that
need padding.
o This is helpful when input data varies in size (e.g., short vs. long sentences).
4. Resilience to Noise and Irrelevant Information
o Because they look at more context, Bi-RNNs can ignore irrelevant or noisy data be er
than one-direc onal models.
o This makes them more stable in real-world applica ons where data isn’t always clean.
5. Ability to Handle Sequential Dependencies
o Bi-RNNs understand long-term rela onships between distant parts of a sequence.
o 👉 This is key in grammar rules, storytelling, or anything where order ma ers.

Applica ons of Bidirec onal RNN in NLP

1. Sentiment Analysis
o Example: Understanding if a sentence expresses posi ve or nega ve emo on.
o Since the full sentence affects meaning, Bi-RNNs perform be er by using both
direc ons to get the full sen ment.
2. Named Entity Recognition (NER)
o Task: Finding names of people, places, brands, etc., in a sentence.
o Bi-RNNs look before and a er the target word to decide if it's a named en ty.
o Example: In “Apple is releasing a new product,” the word “Apple” is iden fied as a
company.
3. Part-of-Speech Tagging
o Task: Labeling each word with its gramma cal role (noun, verb, adjec ve, etc.).
o The same word can have different roles depending on context.
o Bi-RNNs use full sentence context to accurately tag each word.
4. Machine Translation
o Goal: Translate a sentence from one language to another.
o Bi-RNNs are used in the encoder part of encoder-decoder architectures.
o The encoder reads the sentence in both direc ons (forward and backward) to get full
context.
o This helps the decoder generate more accurate transla ons.
5. Speech Recognition
o Bi-RNNs help understand speech be er by considering both what was said before and
what’s coming next.
o They analyze the audio signal in both direc ons to recognize words and meaning more
effec vely.
o Useful in systems like Siri, Google Assistant, etc.

Disadvantages of Bi-RNNs

Despite their strengths, Bi-RNNs have some prac cal drawbacks:

1. Computational Complexity
o Bi-RNNs double the processing by using both forward and backward passes.
 o This leads to higher memory use and longer processing me, making them expensive to
run.
2. Long Training Time
o Because Bi-RNNs have more parameters than standard RNNs, they take longer to train.
o This is especially true for large datasets or deep Bi-RNN networks.
3. Difficulty in Parallelization
o Unlike models like Transformers, RNNs (including Bi-RNNs) process inputs sequen ally.
o This makes it hard to run them in parallel, which slows down training and inference.
4. Overfitting
o With so many parameters, Bi-RNNs can overfit easily, especially on small datasets.
o Overfi ng means the model does well on training data but poorly on new, unseen data.
5. Interpretability
o Since Bi-RNNs process data in both direc ons, it’s hard to explain what’s going on
inside.
o This makes it challenging to debug or understand the reasons behind specific
predic ons.

Advantage Disadvantage
Uses full context (past + future) High computational cost
Better accuracy Slow training
Handles variable-length sequences Difficult to parallelize
Robust to noise Risk of overfitting
Great for NLP tasks Hard to interpret

Deep Recurrent Networks (DRNs)

 Defini on: DRNs are a type of neural network that combines deep learning with Recurrent
Neural Networks (RNNs).

 RNNs: These networks handle sequen al data, where each output depends on previous steps
(temporal dependency).
 Applica ons: Ideal for tasks such as:
o Natural Language Processing (NLP)
o Time series predic on
o Speech recogni on
 Structure:
o DRNs go beyond tradi onal RNNs by stacking mul ple recurrent layers, allowing the
network to learn more complex pa erns.
o Each layer passes its output to the next layer, building hierarchical representa ons of
the data.
 Advantages:
o Handle long-range dependencies be er than shallow RNNs.
o Perform be er in complex tasks like language modeling and machine transla on.
Types of Recurrent Units Used in DRNs:

1. Vanilla RNNs:
o The simplest form.
o Compute output based only on the current input and previous hidden state.
o Can suffer from vanishing gradient problems in long sequences.
2. Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM):
o Designed to overcome the limita ons of vanilla RNNs.
o Uses ga ng mechanisms (input, forget, output gates) to manage the flow of informa on.
o Good at learning long-term dependencies.
3. Gated Recurrent Units (GRUs):
o A simpler alterna ve to LSTMs.
o Combines the forget and input gates into a single update gate.
o More computa onally efficient while retaining performance.

. Architecture Overview (Top Diagram)

 Input Layer: Takes a sequence of inputs over me steps xt (e.g., words in a sentence, frames in a
video).
 Mul ple Hidden Layers: The network is “deep” because it contains more than one hidden
recurrent layer stacked ver cally.
 State Vectors: Hidden states h are maintained and passed from one me step to the next, and
between layers.
 Output Layer: Produces outputs yt at each me step, based on the final hidden layer’s output at
that me.
This is unfolded over me, showing how informa on flows through each layer and across me steps.

Develop a Deep RNN Application

1. Data Prepara on: Clean and structure sequen al input data (e.g., text, audio).
2. Model Architecture Design:
o Choose number of hidden layers L
o Set number of hidden units k per layer
o Decide between RNN, LSTM, or GRU units
3. Training the Model:
o Use backpropaga on through me (BPTT)
o Op mize weights and biases using a loss func on
4. Deployment: Apply the trained model to real tasks, e.g., sen ment analysis.
1. Data Prepara on:

 Goal: Prepare a dataset of texts labeled as posi ve or nega ve.

 Ac ons:
o Clean the text (remove noise).
o Tokenize (split into words/tokens).
o Convert to numerical form (e.g., using word embeddings).
 Tools: Libraries like NLTK or spaCy in Python.

2. Model Architecture Design:

 Decide on:
o Number of layers
o Number of hidden units
o Type of recurrent unit (e.g., LSTM, GRU)
 Also decide how to manage input/output sequence lengths (e.g., padding or trunca on).

3. Training the Model:

 Split data into training and valida on sets.

 Use an op mizer (like stochas c gradient descent).
 Tune hyperparameters (e.g., learning rate, batch size).

4. Evalua ng the Model:

 Test performance on a separate test set.

 Use metrics such as:
o Accuracy
o Precision
o Recall
o F1 Score

5. Deploying the Model:

 Integrate into a real- me applica on (e.g., web or API) to classify sen ment on live data.
Components:

 Input Sequence: Raw sequence data (e.g., words in a sentence).

 Embedding Layer: Converts words into vector representa ons (word embeddings).
 Recurrent Layer (Stacked): Core of the deep RNN. Mul ple layers process temporal
dependencies.
 Output Layer: Applies a func on like so max to convert the final hidden state to class
probabili es.
 Output (Predic ons): Final predic on (e.g., posi ve or nega ve sen ment).

• Input Sequence:

 This is the sequen al data you feed into the model.

 Examples: sentences (text), me-series data, audio signals, etc.

• Embedding Layer:

 Converts raw input (like words) into dense vectors.

 These vectors capture seman c meaning in a high-dimensional space.
 Helps the RNN process and understand the input be er.

• Recurrent Layers:

 The core of an RNN. Processes data one step at a me, maintaining a memory of previous steps.
 Stacked layers form a deep RNN, enabling more complex understanding.
 Types of recurrent units:
o Vanilla RNNs
o LSTMs (Long Short-Term Memory)
 o GRUs (Gated Recurrent Units)

• Output Layer:

 Converts the final hidden state(s) into the desired output format.
 Two common uses:
o Classifica on (e.g., so max for sen ment analysis)
o Regression (e.g., predic ng a value like temperature)

• Output (Prediction):

 The final output of the model.

 Can be:
o A single predic on for the en re sequence.
o A sequence of predic ons (one for each me step), depending on the task.

Advantages of Deep Recurrent Networks (DRNs)

1. Hierarchical Representation Learning:

 Deeper networks can capture mul ple levels of abstrac on.

 Lower layers detect basic pa erns; higher layers detect complex rela onships.

2. Modeling Long-Term Dependencies:

 Stacked RNN layers allow be er reten on of informa on over long sequences.

 This is cri cal for tasks like language transla on, me-series forecas ng, etc.

3. Increased Expressiveness:

 With more layers, DRNs can model more complex and subtle pa erns in sequen al data.
 Especially helpful for detec ng nuances in long texts or speech.

4. Better Feature Abstraction

 What it means: Each layer in a DRN learns different levels of features from the input.
 Why it ma ers: This allows the model to:
o Extract simple pa erns in lower layers (e.g., word-level context).
o Capture complex pa erns in higher layers (e.g., sentence meaning).
 Use cases: Language modeling, speech recogni on, and transla on.

5. Transfer Learning

 What it is: Reusing a model trained on one task for another, related task.
 In DRNs: The model can be pre-trained on large datasets (like Wikipedia for language) and then
fine-tuned on a smaller, task-specific dataset.
  Benefit: Saves me and improves performance when labeled data is limited.

Disadvantages of Deep Recurrent Networks (DRNs)

1. Vanishing/Exploding Gradient Problem

 What it is:
o During training, gradients are used to update weights.
o In deep RNNs, gradients may become:
 Too small (vanish) → No learning happens.
 Too large (explode) → Instability and bad updates.
 Solu on:
o Use LSTM or GRU units (they mi gate this issue).
o Apply techniques like gradient clipping and careful weight ini aliza on.

2. Computational Complexity

 What it means: Deep RNNs require a lot of processing power and memory.
 Why:
o Many layers and sequen al opera ons are involved.
o Large datasets increase the computa on me.
 Impact: Harder to use on mobile devices or in real- me systems.

3. Long Training Time

 Explana on:
o Training requires running many itera ons across large and complex datasets.
o DRNs process data step-by-step (sequen ally), which is slower than models like CNNs.
 Real-world issue: Training could take days or weeks, depending on dataset size and hardware.

4. Overfitting

 What happens:
o Model learns training data too well, including the noise.
o Performs poorly on new, unseen data.
 Why it happens:
o Too many parameters and insufficient data.
 Solu ons:
o Use regulariza on techniques like:
 Dropout
 Weight decay
o Reduce model complexity or use more training data.

5. Difficulty in Interpretability:

 Mul ple Layers:

 o DRNs o en have many hidden layers stacked on top of each other.
o Each layer transforms the data in complex, non-linear ways.
o This makes it hard to trace the path from input to output.

 Non-linear Transforma ons:

o Every layer applies mathema cal opera ons (e.g., tanh, ReLU) that distort the data.
o The deeper the network, the harder it is to understand what each layer is doing.

 Hidden States in RNNs:

o RNNs keep a “memory” of previous inputs using hidden states.

o These hidden states are not human-readable, and they change with every time step.

 Sequence Dependency:

o In DRNs, each predic on depends on a sequence of past inputs, not just one.
o So you can’t just say, “This word caused the sen ment to be posi ve.”
o The influence is spread across me, making it hard to pinpoint the exact cause.
 Application: Image Compression
An application of image compression using Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs). It highlights
how deep learning has transformed image compression by reducing spatial redundancy between
adjacent pixels and reconstructing high-quality images. Traditional methods have grown
increasingly complex, but RNNs offer an alternative approach that leverages sequential
processing for effective encoding and compression.

The architecture diagram showcases an end-to-end framework consisting of five key

components:

1. Encoder network – Extracts meaningful features from image patches.

2. Analysis block – Processes the image to generate latent feature representations.
3. Binarizer – Converts features into compressed binary form for efficient storage.
4. Decoder network – Reconstructs the compressed data back into image form.
5. Synthesis block – Fine-tunes the output for improved quality.

A neural network architecture designed for encoding and decoding data, specifically in an
image compression pipeline using Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs). It consists of two
primary components:

1. Analysis-Encoder Network

 Analysis Block: Uses convolutional layers and Generalized Divisive Normalization

(GDN) to extract features from the input image.
  RNN Layers: A sequence of recurrent layers progressively refines extracted features,
increasing their depth:
o RNN #1 (64 → 256)
o RNN #2 (256 → 512)
o RNN #3 (512 → 512)
 Binarizer: Converts feature maps into a binary representation to enable efficient
compression.

2. Synthesis-Decoder Network

 RNN Layers: Reverse the encoding process, reconstructing compressed data step by
step.
o RNN #6 (64 → 128)
o RNN #5 (128 → 256)
o RNN #4 (512 → 512)
 Synthesis Block: Includes Inverse GDN (iGDN) and convolutional layers to refine and
reconstruct the image.

This design enhances compression efficiency while preserving image fidelity, making it useful
for low-bandwidth transmission, storage optimization, and real-time image processing.

The training process for an image compression network using Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs). It
presents key mathema cal formula ons and different strategies for applying RNNs in image
compression.

Training Process:

1. Single Iteration of the Framework:

o The encoder network transforms the input image into a compressed
representation:

 The decoder network reconstructs the compressed data with an adjustment factor:

 The residual representation measures reconstruction error:

  Initial conditions:

2. Loss Optimization in Training:

o The network minimizes the reconstruction error at each iteration using:

 The overall loss function for variable-rate compression:

Different Approaches to RNN-Based Compression

 Sequence-to-Sequence Compression: The image is divided into patches processed

sequentially using RNNs like LSTMs or GRUs.
 Hierarchical Compression: Multi-layer RNNs refine features progressively, capturing
local and global structures for efficient encoding.
 Conditional Compression: Context-aware compression adjusts based on image
characteristics, resolution, or target bit rate.

These techniques enable adaptive compression, improving storage and transmission efficiency
while preserving image quality.

Lossy Compression with RNNs

Lossy compression focuses on reducing file size by selectively discarding less critical image
details while maintaining perceptual quality.

 RNN-based Models learn to prioritize essential features, ensuring that only the most
relevant aspects of the image are preserved.
 Quantization reduces precision in pixel values, enabling efficient storage.
  Entropy Coding further optimizes compression by encoding high-probability symbols
with shorter codes (e.g., Huffman coding).

Lossy Compression with RNNs

Lossy compression focuses on reducing file size by selectively discarding less critical image
details while maintaining perceptual quality.

 RNN-based Models learn to prioritize essential features, ensuring that only the most
relevant aspects of the image are preserved.
 Quantization reduces precision in pixel values, enabling efficient storage.
 Entropy Coding further optimizes compression by encoding high-probability symbols
with shorter codes (e.g., Huffman coding).

Application: Natural Language Processing

Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) are a fundamental deep learning architecture for processing
sequential data, making them particularly useful in Natural Language Processing (NLP). Here's a
breakdown of the key points:

RNNs for NLP

1. Sequential Data Modeling: Unlike traditional feedforward neural networks, RNNs

maintain an internal memory that allows them to process data sequentially. This makes
them ideal for NLP tasks like text generation and language translation.
2. Contextual Understanding: Words in sentences are dependent on their surrounding
words. RNNs capture contextual dependencies, helping with tasks like sentiment
analysis, machine translation, and speech recognition.
3. Recursive Computation: Each step in an RNN is computed based on previous results,
enabling efficient sequential data processing.

 Unfolding Over Time: The image shows how a single RNN unit repeats across different
time steps. Instead of treating inputs independently, the network maintains a hidden state that
carries contextual information forward.
 Hidden States (h0,h1,hn+1) Each time step has its own hidden state, which is updated based on
previous states and new inputs. This mechanism allows the RNN to remember past information.

 Inputs (x,x0,x1,xn+1): Each time step receives an input vector, which represents part of a
sequence (e.g., words in a sentence).

 Outputs (o,o0,o1,on+1): The model generates an output for each time step, which can be used
for various NLP tasks like translation or sentiment analysis.

 Weight Matrices (W,U): These control how inputs and hidden states interact, determining
how information flows through the network.

RNNs Work in NLP

 Sentences or phrases are tokenized into vectors of fixed sizes.

 These tokenized sequences are fed into the recurrent units one step at a time.
 At each step, the RNN maintains an internal state that represents past computations and
updates it with new inputs.
 The final output can be used for tasks such as predicting the next word in a sentence,
classifying emotions in text, or generating coherent responses.

Challenges & Enhancements

RNNs struggle with long-term dependencies due to issues like vanishing gradients. More
advanced models, such as Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Gated Recurrent Units
(GRU), improve on standard RNNs by better handling long-range dependencies.

Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) are powerful tools for Natural Language Processing
(NLP) due to their ability to handle sequential data while retaining memory from previous
computations. Here's a more structured explanation:

Advantages of RNNs

1. Context Awareness – Unlike traditional neural networks, RNNs can remember past
information and use it to influence current computations, making them effective for
processing sequences.
2. Handling Arbitrary-Length Inputs – They can model dependencies over long
sequences, which is essential for natural language tasks where previous words affect the
meaning of later words.
3. Recursive Computation – RNNs apply recursive transformations, enabling dynamic
processing of sequential data without needing a fixed input size.

Key Applications of RNNs in NLP

1. Natural Language Genera on

 Used in machine translation, image captioning, and visual question answering.

 Generates meaningful text sequences based on prior inputs.

2. Word-Level Classifica on

 Example: Named Entity Recognition (NER) helps identify key entities like people,
places, and organizations in text.

3. Language Modeling

 RNNs predict the next word in a sentence, helping with autocomplete, speech
recognition, and chatbots.

4. Seman c Matching

 Helps in search engines and question-answer systems by linking queries with relevant
content.

5. Sentence-Level Classifica on

 Used for sentiment analysis, classifying a sentence’s emotional tone (positive, negative,
neutral).

Detailed Breakdown of NLP Applications

 Sequence Modeling: Predicts the next word based on previous words, useful for text
generation, autocomplete, and speech recognition.
 Machine Translation: Uses Seq2Seq architectures (encoder-decoder RNNs) to
translate text between languages.
 Sentiment Analysis: Determines the emotion behind text, used in social media
monitoring and customer feedback analysis.
 Named Entity Recognition (NER): Extracts important names and places from text.
 Part-of-Speech Tagging: Identifies grammatical roles of words (e.g., noun, verb,
adjective).
 Text Classification: Categorizes documents by topic (e.g., spam detection, news
classification).
 Dialogue Systems: Powers chatbots by generating relevant conversational responses.

Limitations & Improvements

 Vanishing Gradient Problem – RNNs struggle with remembering long-term

dependencies.
 Solutions – LSTMs and GRUs improve memory retention, and Attention Mechanisms
enhance information recall in longer texts.
 COMPLETE AUTO ENCODER

Complete Autoencoder:

A Complete Autoencoder is a type of ar ficial neural network designed for unsupervised learning,
which means it learns from data without labels.

Autoencoders are mainly used to learn efficient, compressed representa ons of data. Think of it as
teaching the model to understand the essence of the input data.

Autoencoders Importants

 They are part of deep learning models that automatically discover patterns in complex
data.
 Autoencoders are versatile and have been successfully applied in image processing,
anomaly detection, noise reduction, and more.
 They work well in cases where we don’t have labeled data but still want the model to
learn useful features.

An autoencoder has two main parts:

1. Encoder:
o Takes the original input (like an image or a signal).
o Compresses it into a smaller, dense form called a latent representation or code.
o This process is similar to summarizing data.
2. Decoder:
o Takes that latent representation.
o Reconstructs the original input from it.
o The goal is to make the reconstructed output as close to the original input as
possible.
Original Input → Encoder (W) → Latent Space → Decoder (W′) → Reconstructed Output

1. Input Layer

 This is where the original data (like an image or number) is fed into the autoencoder.
 In your diagram, you see several input neurons (circles), each one represen ng a part of the data
(e.g., pixel values in an image).

2. Encoder

 The encoder transforms the input into a smaller representa on.

 It does this by connec ng the input layer to the hidden layer using a set of weights labeled W.
 This process compresses the input and extracts the most important features.
 The hidden layer is also called the latent space or bo leneck, because it's a compressed version
of the input.

3. Hidden Layer (Latent Representation)

 This layer contains fewer neurons than the input, forcing the network to learn efficient
encoding.
 It’s the key point where the input data is summarized in a lower-dimensional space.
 This is the "compressed representa on" seen in the second diagram.

4. Decoder

 The decoder takes this compressed data and reconstructs the original input.
 It uses a different set of weights labeled W to connect the hidden layer to the output layer.
 Its job is to make the output as similar as possible to the input.

5. Output Layer

 The final layer where the reconstructed version of the input is produced.
  The network is trained to minimize the difference between the original input and this output.

Here are some types of complete autoencoders:

1. Vanilla Autoencoder

 Basic structure: fully connected encoder and decoder.

 No special tricks.
 Just learns to reduce and reconstruct data.

Use: Feature learning or dimensionality reduc on.

2. Sparse Autoencoder

 Adds a sparsity constraint (like L1 regulariza on).

 Encourages only a few neurons to ac vate at a me.
 Learns more useful, dis nct features.

Use: When you want each feature to capture something unique.

3. Denoising Autoencoder

 Adds noise to input during training.

 Learns to reconstruct the clean version.
 Helps model become robust to small errors or missing data.

Use: Image denoising, fault-tolerant systems.

4. Variational Autoencoder (VAE)

 A probabilis c version.
 Learns the distribu on of data, not just the input itself.
 Can generate new data by sampling from the latent space.

Use: Genera ve models (e.g., genera ng new faces, digits).

5. Contractive Autoencoder

 Penalizes the model if small changes in input cause large changes in output.
 Makes the learned representa on stable and robust.

Use: Learning smooth manifolds or defending against small adversarial a acks.

6. Adversarial Autoencoder (AAE)

 Combines an autoencoder with a GAN-like discriminator.

  Ensures the latent space follows a specific distribu on (like Gaussian).
 Learns structured latent representa ons.

Use: Semi-supervised learning, genera ng data with controlled features.

7. Convolutional Autoencoder

 Uses convolu onal layers (instead of fully connected layers).

 Great at capturing spa al features in images.

Use: Image compression, noise removal, feature extrac on in computer vision.

8. Recurrent Autoencoder

 Uses RNNs or LSTMs for sequen al data.

 Can remember past inputs and handle variable-length sequences.

Use: Time series, speech, or natural language data.

REGULARIZED AUTOENCODERS

Regularized autoencoders are an improved version of standard autoencoders. Their main goal
is to avoid overfitting — that is, to stop the model from simply memorizing the training data.
Instead, they help the model learn patterns that can generalize well to new, unseen data.

To achieve this, they add regularization — which means placing extra rules or constraints on
how the model learns. These constraints force the autoencoder to focus on the most important
and meaningful features of the data, rather than noise or unnecessary details.

By doing so, regularized autoencoders produce stronger and more useful data
representations. This makes them effective for tasks like:

 Reducing data dimensions (dimensionality reduction),

 Extracting key features (feature learning),
 Cleaning up noisy data (data denoising),
 Spotting unusual or faulty data (anomaly detection).

In short, regularized autoencoders learn smarter, more general features of the data, making
them better suited for many real-world machine learning tasks.
The architecture of an autoencoder neural network, which is used for unsupervised learning tasks like
data compression, feature extrac on, and denoising.

1. Input Layer

 The circles labeled x1,x2,…,x6 represent the input features.

 This is the original data the autoencoder receives.

2. Encoder (first half of hidden layers)

 The encoder is the part of the network that compresses the input data into a lower-dimensional
form.
 The circles labeled a1,a2,…,a6 in the first two hidden layers are encoding layers, where the model
learns a compact representa on.
 The encoder transforms the input x into a code (also called the latent space or bo leneck).

3. Latent Layer / Bo leneck (middle layer)

 The central hidden layer (with a1,a2,…,a6) acts as the bo leneck.

 This is the compressed representa on of the input — a cri cal part of what the model learns.
 It contains only the most important features needed to reconstruct the original data.

4. Decoder (second half of hidden layers)

 The decoder reconstructs the input from the bo leneck representa on.
 The layers mirror the encoder in reverse, transforming the compact code back into the original
format.
5. Output Layer

 The final layer outputs x’1,x’2,…,x’6 which aim to closely match the original inputs.
 The goal of the network is to minimize the difference between input and output — typically
using mean squared error (MSE) or similar loss func ons.

Structure of Regularized Autoencoders

A regularized autoencoder is structurally similar to a tradi onal autoencoder (like the one in the image
you shared), but it includes special techniques to prevent overfi ng and help the model learn more
general and useful features.

1. Neuronal Arrangement

 The overall structure remains the same:

o Encoder compresses the input.
o Decoder reconstructs the input.
 The difference: regulariza on techniques are applied within these layers to control how the
model learns.

2. Ac va on Func ons

 Regularized autoencoders o en use ac va on func ons (like ReLU, Leaky ReLU, or sigmoid) that
work well with regulariza on.
 These help improve training stability and performance.

Common Regularization Techniques Used

1. L1 and L2 Regulariza on

 Add a penalty term to the loss func on:

o L1 promotes sparse weights (many weights become zero), helping the model focus on
the most important features.
o L2 encourages small weights, making the model simpler and less prone to overfi ng.

2. Dropout

 Randomly “turns off” some neurons during training.

 Forces the network to not rely too much on any single neuron.
 Helps it learn robust features.

3. Batch Normaliza on

 Normalizes layer outputs (ac va ons) during training.

 Helps with faster learning and reduces sensi vity to ini aliza on.
 Also acts like a regularizer by reducing overfi ng.
4. Noise Injec on

 Adds random noise to inputs or hidden layers during training.

 Forces the model to handle varia on, improving its ability to generalize to new data.
 Example: Denoising Autoencoders use this approach.

5. Contrac ve Regulariza on

 Adds a penalty based on the Jacobian matrix of the encoder (i.e., how sensi ve the output is to
small input changes).
 Encourages the model to be less sensi ve to small noise or varia ons in the input.

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STOCHASTIC ENCODERS AND DECODERS

What are they?

 Stochas c encoders and decoders are special parts of a neural network architecture used in
probabilis c models—par cularly in Varia onal Autoencoders (VAEs).
 The term "stochas c" means random or involving chance. So, unlike regular (determinis c)
encoders and decoders, these ones introduce randomness in the process.

Why introduce randomness?

 In VAEs, we want the model to learn not just a single fixed representa on of input data (like an
image or sentence), but a distribu on (i.e., a range of possible representa ons with
probabili es).
 This allows the model to capture uncertainty and generate varia ons of the input data.

How does it work?

 The stochas c encoder maps input data (e.g., an image) to a probability distribu on (o en a
Gaussian), not a single point.
 From this distribu on, a latent vector (a set of features) is randomly sampled.
 The stochas c decoder takes this sampled vector and reconstructs the data (or creates a new
varia on).

Why is it useful?

 Because the encoder and decoder are probabilis c, VAEs can:

 o Generate new, realis c samples (like new images).
o Learn meaningful latent representa ons in an unsupervised way (no labeled data
needed).
o Model complex data distribu ons, useful in fields like NLP, computer vision, and
bioinforma cs.

1. Input Data (X):

 This is your original data, like an image, a sentence, or any high-dimensional input.

2. Stochastic Encoder (qϕ):

 The encoder doesn’t give a fixed latent vector.

 Instead, it produces two outputs:
o μ (mean)
o σ (standard devia on)
 These define a Gaussian distribu on from which we’ll sample the latent variable z.
 The goal is to map the high-dimensional input to a low-dimensional distribu on.

3. Reparameterization Trick:

 We can’t directly backpropagate through random sampling, so we use:

 This reparameteriza on trick allows gradients to flow and makes training possible.

4. Latent Variable (Z):

  This is a sampled point from the distribu on defined by μ and σ.
 It’s a compressed, probabilis c representa on of the input.

5. Stochastic Decoder (pθ):

 The decoder takes z and reconstructs the input data.

 It maps the low-dimensional latent vector z back to a high-dimensional output X .

6. Output (X′):

 This is the reconstructed version of the input.

 The model is trained to make X as close as possible to the original X.

Stochas c Encoder in a VAE

In a Varia onal Autoencoder (VAE), the encoder is not like a regular autoencoder.

 Instead of producing a fixed (determinis c) vector to represent the input, it produces:

o A mean (μ)
o A variance (σ²)
These define a Gaussian (normal) distribu on.

 Because we want to learn a distribu on of possible latent representa ons, not just one.
 This gives the model the ability to generate new varia ons of the input data.

 The model uses the reparameteriza on trick to sample a latent variable z from that distribu on:

 This sampled z is the stochas c latent representa on.

Stochas c Decoder in a VAE

Now we move to the decoder part.

 The decoder takes the sampled latent vector z, not a fixed one.
 Based on this randomly sampled z, it generates or reconstructs the output (which should look
like the original input).
 Component Purpose Deterministic? What it Outputs/Consumes
Stochastic Learn a distribution of latent Outputs μ and σ (parameters
No
Encoder representations of a distribution)
Stochastic Generate realistic data from a Inputs a sampled z, produces
No
Decoder sampled latent code output X′

ELBO (Evidence Lower Bound Objective):

 ELBO is the objec ve func on VAEs op mize.

 It approximates the log-likelihood of the data using a combina on of:
o Reconstruc on term (how well the input is reconstructed)
o KL divergence term (how close the learned latent distribu on is to a prior like a standard
Gaussian)

Two Main Strategies for Improving Latent Space:

 1. Up-weigh ng the KL term → Encourages disentanglement by penalizing the latent space more.
o Example: β-VAE (uses a coefficient β > 1 to scale the KL divergence)
2. Adding different types of regularizers to ELBO:
o Mutual Informa on → e.g., InfoMax-VAE
o Total Correla on → e.g., β-TCVAE, Factor-VAE
o Covariance penalty → e.g., DIP-VAE

Cost Func on and Architecture

This part shows a simplified pipeline of how the VAE learns and how its cost func on is computed.

Step-by-step Flow:

1. Input Dataset (X):

Real data samples (e.g., images, texts).
2. Encoder Output — Pwe(h∣X):
o The encoder learns a distribu on over latent variables (h) given input data.
o This is the probabilis c encoder qϕ(z∣X).
3. Latent Space (h):
o Compressed representa on of data.
o Samples are drawn from the learned distribu on.
4. Decoder Output — Pwd(X∣h):
o The decoder tries to reconstruct the input X from the latent code h.
o This is the probabilis c decoder pθ(X∣z).
5. Output ( X):
o The reconstructed data, ideally very similar to the input.

Cost Func on:

The VAE loss has two key components:

1. Reconstruction Error:

 Measures how close the output X^ is to the input X.

 Encourages good data reconstruc on.
 Typically measured using binary cross-entropy or MSE.

2. Regularization Error (KL Divergence):

 Ensures that the learned latent distribu on q(z∣X) stays close to a prior distribu on (usually a
standard normal).
 This keeps the latent space well-structured and enables sampling.
 CONTRACTIVE AUTOENCODERS
Contractive Autoencoder?

A Contrac ve Autoencoder (CAE) is a type of autoencoder — a neural network used to learn compact
(compressed) representa ons of data — with an extra twist: it includes a regulariza on term that makes
the learned features more robust to small changes in the input.

Use of Contractive Regularization

In real-world data, small changes (like noise or slight varia ons) shouldn't dras cally change the internal
representa on. We want the encoder to be stable and less sensi ve to such small perturba ons.

1. Autoencoder Structure:
o Like any autoencoder, it has:
 Encoder: Maps input x to hidden representa on h
 Decoder: Reconstructs input from h back to x^
2. Contrac ve Regulariza on:
o During training, a penalty is added to the loss func on.
o This penalty is based on the Jacobian matrix — a matrix of par al deriva ves of the
hidden layer with respect to the input.
o Specifically, we penalize the Frobenius norm (a measure of size) of this Jacobian.

 CAEs aim to learn invariant representations — this means the encoded features shouldn’t
change much even if the input changes in a small or unimportant way.
 They are designed to ignore irrelevant noise or small transformations in the input data.

Use CAE Instead of Just a Normal or Denoising Autoencoder?

 CAE outperforms regular and denoising autoencoders in learning more useful, stable
representa ons.
 Instead of just adding noise (like in denoising AEs), CAE mathema cally controls how much the
output changes when the input changes.

Regulariza on Term

Training Objective

During training, we minimize:

 Reconstruc on loss (how close the output x^\hat{x}x^ is to input xxx)

 + Contrac ve penalty (to ensure stable features)

This dual-objec ve leads the model to:

 Keep the representa on accurate (good reconstruc on)

 And robust (insensi ve to noise or small changes)

Real-world Uses of CAEs

 Dimensionality Reduc on: Like PCA, but nonlinear and more powerful.
 Feature Learning: To extract robust features for other tasks like classifica on.
 Denoising: Especially when input data has small random varia ons.
  Corrupted Input: The original image (in this case, the digit "7") is perturbed by adding
noise, making the input slightly distorted.
 Autoencoder Structure: The corrupted input passes through an encoder, which
compresses it into a lower-dimensional representation. The decoder then reconstructs the
image from this compressed form.
 Reconstruction Loss: The goal is to compare the reconstructed output with the original
(uncorrupted) image and minimize the loss, ensuring the model can robustly recover
meaningful features despite noise.
 Contractive Regularization: This method applies a penalty that encourages similar
inputs to map to similar feature representations, reducing sensitivity to variations in input.

The benefits and applications of contractive autoencoders include:

 Robustness to Noise: The encoder learns feature representations that remain stable even with
small variations in input data. This makes contractive autoencoders particularly useful in
denoising applications.

 Improved Generalization: By limiting sensitivity to perturbations, contractive autoencoders

reduce the risk of overfitting, ensuring that the learned representations work well with unseen
data.

 Feature Learning: The network extracts discriminative features from the data that can be
valuable for downstream tasks like classification, clustering, and anomaly detection.

 Dimensionality Reduction: The encoder compresses high-dimensional data into lower-

dimensional, meaningful representations, useful for visualization and efficient storage.
 Unsupervised Learning: Since training doesn’t require labeled data, contractive autoencoders
are effective in tasks where labeled datasets are scarce, allowing models to uncover patterns in
large-scale unstructured data.