📚 The Ilya 30u30 Deep Learning Compendium

A free comprehensive book based on the 30 papers and resources recommended by Ilya Sutskever for mastering Artificial Intelligence.

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About This Book

This book transforms Ilya Sutskever’s legendary “30u30” reading list into an accessible, structured learning journey. Each chapter distills complex research papers into clear explanations with visual Mermaid diagrams.

Source: Based on Ilya’s 30u30 Reading List and Primers • Ilya Sutskever’s Top 30


What You’ll Find

Each chapter includes:

  • 📖 Accessible explanations - Complex concepts made simple
  • 📊 Mermaid diagrams - Visual representations of key ideas
  • 🔢 Key equations - Essential formulas with intuitive explanations
  • 🔗 Connections - Links between related papers and concepts
  • 💡 Modern applications - How ideas are used today
  • 📚 References - Original papers and further reading

Book Structure

Part Focus Chapters
Part I Foundations of Learning and Complexity 1-5
Part II Convolutional Neural Networks 6-10
Part III Sequence Models and Recurrent Networks 11-14
Part IV Attention and Transformers 15-17
Part V Advanced Architectures 18-23
Part VI Scaling and Efficiency 24-26
Part VII The Future of Intelligence 27

Suggested Reading Paths

Read chapters 1-27 in order for a complete journey from theory to practice.

⚡ Practitioner’s Path

If you want to build things quickly:

  1. Chapter 6 (AlexNet) → Chapter 8 (ResNet)
  2. Chapter 11-12 (RNNs/LSTMs)
  3. Chapter 15-17 (Attention/Transformers)
  4. Chapter 25 (Scaling Laws)

🧠 Theorist’s Path

If you love theory and foundations:

  1. Chapters 1-5 (Full Part I)
  2. Chapter 27 (Superintelligence)
  3. Then practical chapters as needed

🔬 Researcher’s Path

For cutting-edge architectures:

  1. Chapters 16-17 (Transformers)
  2. Chapters 18-23 (Advanced Architectures)
  3. Chapters 25-26 (Scaling)

License

Educational content based on public research papers. All original papers are cited with links to their sources.


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Educational content based on public research papers. All original papers are cited with links to their sources.