The following figure presents a simple functional diagram of the neural network we will use throughout the article. The neural network is a sequence of linear (both convolutional A convolution calculates weighted sums of regions in the input. In neural networks, the learnable weights in convolutional layers are referred to as the kernel. For example Image credit to https://towardsdatascience.com/gentle-dive-into-math-behind-convolutional-neural-networks-79a07dd44cf9. See also Convolution arithmetic. and fully-connected A fully-connected layer computes output neurons as weighted sum of input neurons. In matrix form, it is a matrix that linearly transforms the input vector into the output vector. ), max-pooling, and ReLU First introduced by Nair and Hinton, ReLU calculates f(x)=max(0,x)f(x)=max(0,x)f(x)=max(0,x) for each entry in a vector input. Graphically, it is a hinge at the origin: Image credit to https://pytorch.org/docs/stable/nn.html#relu layers, culminating in a softmax Softmax function calculates S(yi)=eyiΣj=1NeyjS(y_i)=\frac{e^{y_i}}{\Sigma_{j=1}^{N} e^{y_j}}S(yi​)=Σj=1N​eyj​eyi​​ for each entry (yiy_iyi​) in a vector input (yyy). For example, Image credit to https://ljvmiranda921.github.io/notebook/2017/08/13/softmax-and-the-negative-log-likelihood/ layer.

Even with this very primitive single neuron, you can achieve 90% accuracy when recognizing a handwritten text image1. To recognize all the digits from 0 to 9, you would need just ten neurons to recognize them with 92% accuracy.

One popular theory among machine learning researchers is the manifold hypothesis: MNIST is a low dimensional manifold, sweeping and curving through its high-dimensional embedding space. Another hypothesis, more associated with topological data analysis, is that data like MNIST consists of blobs with tentacle-like protrusions sticking out into the surrounding space.