<s>
fast.ai	B-General_Concept
is	O
a	O
non-profit	O
research	O
group	O
focused	O
on	O
deep	B-Algorithm
learning	I-Algorithm
and	O
artificial	B-Application
intelligence	I-Application
.	I-Application
</s>
<s>
It	O
was	O
founded	O
in	O
2016	O
by	O
Jeremy	O
Howard	O
and	O
Rachel	O
Thomas	O
with	O
the	O
goal	O
of	O
democratizing	O
deep	B-Algorithm
learning	I-Algorithm
.	O
</s>
<s>
They	O
do	O
this	O
by	O
providing	O
a	O
massive	O
open	O
online	O
course	O
(	O
MOOC	O
)	O
named	O
"	O
Practical	O
Deep	B-Algorithm
Learning	I-Algorithm
for	O
Coders	O
,	O
"	O
which	O
has	O
no	O
other	O
prerequisites	O
except	O
for	O
knowledge	O
of	O
the	O
programming	O
language	O
Python	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
free	O
MOOC	O
"	O
Practical	O
Deep	B-Algorithm
Learning	I-Algorithm
for	O
Coders	O
"	O
is	O
available	O
as	O
recorded	O
videos	O
,	O
initially	O
taught	O
by	O
Howard	O
and	O
Thomas	O
at	O
the	O
University	O
of	O
San	O
Francisco	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Topics	O
include	O
image	O
classification	O
,	O
stochastic	B-Algorithm
gradient	I-Algorithm
descent	I-Algorithm
,	O
natural	B-Language
language	I-Language
processing	I-Language
(	O
NLP	B-Language
)	O
,	O
and	O
various	O
deep	B-Algorithm
learning	I-Algorithm
architectures	O
such	O
as	O
convolutional	B-Architecture
neural	I-Architecture
networks	I-Architecture
(	O
CNNs	B-Architecture
)	O
,	O
recursive	B-Algorithm
neural	I-Algorithm
networks	I-Algorithm
(	O
RNNs	O
)	O
and	O
generative	B-Algorithm
adversarial	I-Algorithm
networks	I-Algorithm
(	O
GANs	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
2018	O
,	O
students	O
of	O
fast.ai	B-General_Concept
participated	O
in	O
the	O
Stanford	O
’s	O
DAWNBench	O
challenge	O
alongside	O
big	O
tech	O
companies	O
like	O
Google	B-Application
and	O
Intel	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
While	O
Google	B-Application
could	O
obtain	O
an	O
edge	O
in	O
some	O
challenges	O
due	O
to	O
its	O
highly	O
specialized	O
TPU	O
chips	O
,	O
the	O
CIFAR-10	O
challenge	O
was	O
won	O
by	O
the	O
fast.ai	B-General_Concept
students	O
,	O
programming	O
the	O
fastest	O
and	O
cheapest	O
algorithms	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
As	O
a	O
fast.ai	B-General_Concept
student	O
,	O
alumna	O
Sara	O
Hooker	O
created	O
software	O
to	O
detect	O
illegal	O
deforestation	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
She	O
later	O
became	O
a	O
founding	O
member	O
of	O
Google	B-Application
AI	I-Application
in	O
Accra	O
,	O
Ghana	O
—	O
the	O
first	O
AI	B-Application
research	I-Application
office	O
in	O
Africa	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
the	O
fall	O
of	O
2018	O
,	O
fast.ai	B-General_Concept
released	O
v1.0	O
of	O
their	O
free	O
open-source	B-License
library	O
for	O
deep	B-Algorithm
learning	I-Algorithm
called	O
fastai	O
(	O
without	O
a	O
period	O
)	O
,	O
sitting	O
atop	O
PyTorch	B-Algorithm
.	O
</s>
<s>
Google	B-General_Concept
Cloud	I-General_Concept
was	O
the	O
first	O
to	O
announce	O
its	O
support	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
open-source	B-License
framework	O
is	O
hosted	O
on	O
GitHub	B-Application
and	O
is	O
licensed	O
under	O
the	O
Apache	B-Application
License	I-Application
,	I-Application
Version	I-Application
2.0	I-Application
.	O
</s>
