Why deep neural networks for function approximation

Recently there has been much interest in understanding why deep neural networks are preferred to shallow networks. We show that, for a large class of piecewise smooth functions, the number of neurons needed by a shallow network to approximate a function is exponentially larger than the corresponding number of neurons needed by a deep network for a given degree of function approximation. First, we consider univariate functions on a bounded interval and require a neural network to achieve an approximation error of ε uniformly over the interval. We show that shallow networks (i.e., networks whose depth does not depend on ε) require Ω(poly(1/ε)) neurons while deep networks (i.e., networks whose depth grows with 1/ε) require O(polylog(1/ε)) neurons. We then extend these results to certain classes of important multivariate functions. Our results are derived for neural networks which use a combination of rectifier linear units (ReLUs) and binary step units, two of the most popular types of activation functions. Our analysis builds on a simple observation: the multiplication of two bits can be represented by a ReLU.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical & Computer Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2018

Author dc:creator

• Liang, Shiyu

Contributors dc:contributor

• Srikant, Rayadurgam

• Neural networks
• Deep learning

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2017 Shiyu Liang

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/99417

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/99417