AI Predicted I Am How Old?!
How I built a deep learning application with ZERO experience (and lived to tell the tale)
Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror,trying your best to ignore your ever-growing laugh lines and thought,”Hey,I could pass for 25 …right?”
Well,what if I told you that with a little help from deep learning,you will get a brutally honest reality check from your new bestie — AI.That’s exactly what I set out to do,despite having no prior experience in deep learning!
And let me tell you,it’s been a fun ride!
Why Should You Care About Deep Learning?
Not everyone is interested in coding or anything remotely related to it,I get it!Especially, “deep learning” sounds like some indecipherable freudian interpretation of dreams mixed with atrocious math!
Despite the fact that I’ve been swimming in the data for a few years,I’ve never built a deep learning model myself!
But with the ever-elusive AI trend,I couldn’t help but notice that everyone is talking about LLMs.For a novice like me,I figured — at least let me start from somewhere to catch up!
So,I did any self-respecting novice would do:I asked ChatGPT to branstorm and guide me through this Mariana Trench of deep learning!And guess what happened?I built a deep learning app that roasts my age!
From Consumer to Producer: The Learning Curve is Real
The ideas of building something from scratch is exhilarating!I’ve been a consumer for most of my life — Vinted binge shopping, mindless Youtube videos scrolling, you name it!
But becoming a solopreneur?That meant switching to produce things!And it’s been … hard!
It’s like going to a hip hop dance class and realizing you can’t catch up with the instructor while battling the self -deprecation of how little you can dance!
But every great dancer starts from one move!Were they overwhelmed? Probably!Did they give up?Absolutely no!
There’s one thing I’ve learned,it’s that messy starts are better than no starts! This project was my gateway into a world of uncomfortable growth,where every baby step feels like my first awkward dance class!
How It All Began:A Little Help from ChatGPT
I turned to my trusted AI friend,and asked:“What’s fun deep learning projects for beginners?”
It threw a bunch of good ideas my way:
Based on those suggestions I picked the one that interests me the most which is gender and age predictor.I mean who wouldn’t want a free AI beauty consultation?Count me in!
The Step-by-Step Saga
If you ever follow a food receipe,you know you would need a step by step guide just like this:
ChatGPT has laid out a high level step-by-step roadmap:
Setting Up Your Environment
Choosing a Pre-Trained Model
Building the Flask Application
Creating HTML Templates
Just like following a cooking receipe,if you’ve never cooked,you wouldn’t understand what “Julienne” means. Luckily,you can ask ChatGPT to explain further.
That’s exactly what I did!I took one step at a time,after numerous iterations, huffs,puffs and sleepless nights,I finally debugged and made it work!
The Final Product:An AI That Predicts My Age (Unforgivingly)
After nights of hard work and sweat,I have my first AI application ready! I eagerly uploaded a selfie of me, and hooray — AI did its things!
Let’s just say my first AI child had the audacity to tell me that I look older than I’d like!Well, reality check hit hard!
But,I now have an unempathetic beauty consultant who dares to tell me the brutal truth — and even offers beauty advice!
Here’s a sneak peak of how it works:
My AI bestie unapologetically roasted my age — I’d better follow its advice! Maybe I will look younger next month?!
Building Beyond the Code: Lessons Learned
Building this project isn’t only about deep learning,it’s about embracing the process of creating something, anything!
Instead of sitting on my couch binging watching Amazon Prime,I kicked my butt and got moving! Starting messy is better than never starting at all!
And this is just a beginning!Whether it’s a blog post, Youtube videos, web applications or your next SaaS product, every small creation counts!
You don’t need to be an expert,you just need to start!
Final Thoughts
This porject taught me that deep learning is not as hard as it looks,as long as you take it one step at a time.
With the right guildance and willingness to sacrifice your own comfort,anyone can create something meaningful!
So,what are you waiting for?Start your own beautiful,messy project today!