What is fastbook?

This repository contains the complete interactive textbook for learning deep learning, written by Jeremy Howard and Sylvain Gugger. It is the foundation for a popular online course and a published book, "Deep Learning for Coders with Fastai and PyTorch." The materials teach you how to build artificial intelligence applications using two tools: fastai (a software library designed to make deep learning approachable) and PyTorch (a widely used framework for building AI models). The goal is to help people create working AI applications without needing an advanced math degree. The content is structured as interactive documents called notebooks. A notebook lets you read explanatory text and immediately run real computer code in the same view, which makes it easier to experiment and learn by doing. The chapters walk through practical projects, starting from the basics of training a model and moving into real-world topics like putting AI into production, understanding ethics, analyzing text, and working with image data. You do not even need to install special software on your own computer to get started, the authors recommend opening the chapters directly in your web browser using a free Google tool called Colab. This resource is designed for programmers and beginners who want to break into machine learning but are intimidated by its typical academic reputation. If you are a founder, product manager, or someone who already knows a little bit of coding and wants to build AI-powered features, these notebooks guide you through creating actual working models. For example, you learn how to train a system to recognize different breeds of pets, build recommendation systems, and analyze natural language. A notable aspect of this project is its licensing, which reflects the creators' desire to share knowledge freely while protecting their work. The underlying computer code is open-source, meaning anyone can use and modify it for their own projects. However, the written explanations and prose are strictly copyrighted, meaning you cannot republish, reformat, or commercially broadcast the text without permission. The repository is also available in multiple languages, including Spanish, Chinese, and Korean, to make the material accessible to a global audience.