What is an activation function?

Course Q&A Machine Learning Specialization Advanced Learning Algorithms
1

Hi Everyone, hope everyone’s doing good :slight_smile:

I came across something called activation function when I was taking the first quiz of course 2 but there wasn’t any explanation on that from Mr. Andrew. I was just wondering if it is the logistic function that runs inside the neuron or is it something else? If both of them are different, can someone please help me understand what it is?

Thanks, Manjunath

2

Hi!

I believe the activation function is first mentioned in the Demand Prediction video https://www.coursera.org/learn/advanced-learning-algorithms/lecture/MsbrF/demand-prediction
And yes in that example the logistic function is the activation function used.
Activation functions will be further explained in the course and different activation functions will be introduced as well.

Happy learning!

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