How deep learning differs from traditional machine learning While machine learning has been a transformative technology in its own right, deep learning takes it a step further by automating many of the tasks that typically require human expertise. Deep learning is essentially a specialized subset of machine learning, distinguished by its use of neural networks with three or more layers. These neural networks attempt to simulate the behavior of the human brain—albeit far from matching its ability—in order to "learn" from large amounts of data. You can explore machine learning vs deep learning in more detail in a separate post.