Direct Feedback Alignment Scales to Modern Deep Learning Tasks and Architectures (Paper Explained)

Backpropagation is one of the central components of modern deep learning. However, it’s not biologically plausible, which limits the applicability of deep learning to understand how the human brain works. Direct Feedback Alignment is a biologically plausible alternative and this paper shows that, contrary to previous research, it can be successfully applied to modern deep architectures and solve challenging tasks. OUTLINE: 0:00 - Intro & Overview 1:40 - The Problem with Backpropagation 10:25 - Direct Feedb