Question 170 - MLS-C01 discussion

The problem described in the question is a case of overfitting, where the neural network model performs well on the training data but poorly on the test data. This means that the model has learned the noise and specific patterns of the training data, but cannot generalize to new and unseen data. To solve this issue, the Specialist should consider the following changes:

Choose a lower number of layers: Reducing the number of layers can reduce the complexity and capacity of the neural network model, making it less prone to overfitting. A model with 50 hidden layers is likely too deep for the given data size and task. A simpler model with fewer layers can learn the essential features of the data without memorizing the noise.

Enable dropout: Dropout is a regularization technique that randomly drops out some units in the neural network during training. This prevents the units from co-adapting too much and forces the model to learn more robust features. Dropout can improve the generalization and test performance of the model by reducing overfitting.

Enable early stopping: Early stopping is another regularization technique that monitors the validation error during training and stops the training process when the validation error stops decreasing or starts increasing. This prevents the model from overtraining on the training data and reduces overfitting.

References:

Deep Learning - Machine Learning Lens

How to Avoid Overfitting in Deep Learning Neural Networks

How to Identify Overfitting Machine Learning Models in Scikit-Learn