Like many developments in machine learning, transfer learning is inspired by our own human way of tackling complex tasks and gathering knowledge.
As mentioned in the introduction of this section, the first inspiration is our ability as a species to transfer knowledge from one individual to another. Experts can efficiently transfer the precious knowledge they have gathered over the years to a large number of students through oral or written teaching. By harnessing the knowledge that has been accumulated and distilled generation after generation, human civilizations have been able to continuously refine and extend their technical abilities. Phenomena that took millennia for our ancestors to understand— such as human biology, the solar system, and more—became common knowledge.
Furthermore, as individuals, we also have the ability to transfer some expertise from one task to another. For example, people mastering one foreign language have an easier time...
