Trained my own model for 2 weeks and it was just copying the training data

I spent 14 straight days building a custom image classifier for my side project, feeling proud of how accurate it was getting. Turned out when I tested it with a completely random photo, it labeled it as one of the training images instead of recognizing anything new. Does that mean I just built a fancy lookup table instead of actual AI?

2 comments

2 Comments

quinn_fox14h ago

Yeah "fancy lookup table" is exactly how I felt when my AI project failed too, it really stings when that happens man.

david_adams8h ago

Wait, you're telling me you actually spent THREE MONTHS training that transformer model from scratch before you realized the whole thing was basically just memorizing patterns? Dude, I would have been pacing around my apartment for a week after that. The worst part is when you start second guessing every single decision you made along the way. I remember staring at my code for hours trying to figure out where the "intelligence" was supposed to magically appear. That feeling when you finally accept that your model can't reason at all, it's just stats on steroids...