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This tutorial demonstrates training a simple Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to classify CIFAR images. Because this tutorial uses the Keras Sequential API, creating and training your model will take just a few lines of code.
Import TensorFlow
import tensorflow as tf
from tensorflow.keras import datasets, layers, models
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
2025-12-01 09:21:08.670922: E external/local_xla/xla/stream_executor/cuda/cuda_fft.cc:467] Unable to register cuFFT factory: Attempting to register factory for plugin cuFFT when one has already been registered WARNING: All log messages before absl::InitializeLog() is called are written to STDERR E0000 00:00:1764580868.693437 434868 cuda_dnn.cc:8579] Unable to register cuDNN factory: Attempting to register factory for plugin cuDNN when one has already been registered E0000 00:00:1764580868.700931 434868 cuda_blas.cc:1407] Unable to register cuBLAS factory: Attempting to register factory for plugin cuBLAS when one has already been registered W0000 00:00:1764580868.719234 434868 computation_placer.cc:177] computation placer already registered. Please check linkage and avoid linking the same target more than once. W0000 00:00:1764580868.719253 434868 computation_placer.cc:177] computation placer already registered. Please check linkage and avoid linking the same target more than once. W0000 00:00:1764580868.719255 434868 computation_placer.cc:177] computation placer already registered. Please check linkage and avoid linking the same target more than once. W0000 00:00:1764580868.719258 434868 computation_placer.cc:177] computation placer already registered. Please check linkage and avoid linking the same target more than once.
Download and prepare the CIFAR10 dataset
The CIFAR10 dataset contains 60,000 color images in 10 classes, with 6,000 images in each class. The dataset is divided into 50,000 training images and 10,000 testing images. The classes are mutually exclusive and there is no overlap between them.
(train_images, train_labels), (test_images, test_labels) = datasets.cifar10.load_data()
# Normalize pixel values to be between 0 and 1
train_images, test_images = train_images / 255.0, test_images / 255.0
Downloading data from https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~kriz/cifar-10-python.tar.gz 170498071/170498071 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 4s 0us/step
Verify the data
To verify that the dataset looks correct, let's plot the first 25 images from the training set and display the class name below each image:
class_names = ['airplane', 'automobile', 'bird', 'cat', 'deer',
'dog', 'frog', 'horse', 'ship', 'truck']
plt.figure(figsize=(10,10))
for i in range(25):
plt.subplot(5,5,i+1)
plt.xticks([])
plt.yticks([])
plt.grid(False)
plt.imshow(train_images[i])
# The CIFAR labels happen to be arrays,
# which is why you need the extra index
plt.xlabel(class_names[train_labels[i][0]])
plt.show()

Create the convolutional base
The 6 lines of code below define the convolutional base using a common pattern: a stack of Conv2D and MaxPooling2D layers.
As input, a CNN takes tensors of shape (image_height, image_width, color_channels), ignoring the batch size. If you are new to these dimensions, color_channels refers to (R,G,B). In this example, you will configure your CNN to process inputs of shape (32, 32, 3), which is the format of CIFAR images. You can do this by passing the argument input_shape to your first layer.
model = models.Sequential()
model.add(layers.Conv2D(32, (3, 3), activation='relu', input_shape=(32, 32, 3)))
model.add(layers.MaxPooling2D((2, 2)))
model.add(layers.Conv2D(64, (3, 3), activation='relu'))
model.add(layers.MaxPooling2D((2, 2)))
model.add(layers.Conv2D(64, (3, 3), activation='relu'))
/tmpfs/src/tf_docs_env/lib/python3.9/site-packages/keras/src/layers/convolutional/base_conv.py:113: UserWarning: Do not pass an `input_shape`/`input_dim` argument to a layer. When using Sequential models, prefer using an `Input(shape)` object as the first layer in the model instead. super().__init__(activity_regularizer=activity_regularizer, **kwargs) I0000 00:00:1764580881.421943 434868 gpu_device.cc:2019] Created device /job:localhost/replica:0/task:0/device:GPU:0 with 13638 MB memory: -> device: 0, name: Tesla T4, pci bus id: 0000:00:05.0, compute capability: 7.5 I0000 00:00:1764580881.424731 434868 gpu_device.cc:2019] Created device /job:localhost/replica:0/task:0/device:GPU:1 with 13756 MB memory: -> device: 1, name: Tesla T4, pci bus id: 0000:00:06.0, compute capability: 7.5 I0000 00:00:1764580881.426886 434868 gpu_device.cc:2019] Created device /job:localhost/replica:0/task:0/device:GPU:2 with 13756 MB memory: -> device: 2, name: Tesla T4, pci bus id: 0000:00:07.0, compute capability: 7.5 I0000 00:00:1764580881.429323 434868 gpu_device.cc:2019] Created device /job:localhost/replica:0/task:0/device:GPU:3 with 13756 MB memory: -> device: 3, name: Tesla T4, pci bus id: 0000:00:08.0, compute capability: 7.5
Let's display the architecture of your model so far:
model.summary()
Above, you can see that the output of every Conv2D and MaxPooling2D layer is a 3D tensor of shape (height, width, channels). The width and height dimensions tend to shrink as you go deeper in the network. The number of output channels for each Conv2D layer is controlled by the first argument (e.g., 32 or 64). Typically, as the width and height shrink, you can afford (computationally) to add more output channels in each Conv2D layer.
Add Dense layers on top
To complete the model, you will feed the last output tensor from the convolutional base (of shape (4, 4, 64)) into one or more Dense layers to perform classification. Dense layers take vectors as input (which are 1D), while the current output is a 3D tensor. First, you will flatten (or unroll) the 3D output to 1D, then add one or more Dense layers on top. CIFAR has 10 output classes, so you use a final Dense layer with 10 outputs.
model.add(layers.Flatten())
model.add(layers.Dense(64, activation='relu'))
model.add(layers.Dense(10))
Here's the complete architecture of your model:
model.summary()
The network summary shows that (4, 4, 64) outputs were flattened into vectors of shape (1024) before going through two Dense layers.
Compile and train the model
model.compile(optimizer='adam',
loss=tf.keras.losses.SparseCategoricalCrossentropy(from_logits=True),
metrics=['accuracy'])
history = model.fit(train_images, train_labels, epochs=10,
validation_data=(test_images, test_labels))
Epoch 1/10 WARNING: All log messages before absl::InitializeLog() is called are written to STDERR I0000 00:00:1764580885.623270 435036 service.cc:152] XLA service 0x7f6d24004d60 initialized for platform CUDA (this does not guarantee that XLA will be used). Devices: I0000 00:00:1764580885.623303 435036 service.cc:160] StreamExecutor device (0): Tesla T4, Compute Capability 7.5 I0000 00:00:1764580885.623319 435036 service.cc:160] StreamExecutor device (1): Tesla T4, Compute Capability 7.5 I0000 00:00:1764580885.623322 435036 service.cc:160] StreamExecutor device (2): Tesla T4, Compute Capability 7.5 I0000 00:00:1764580885.623324 435036 service.cc:160] StreamExecutor device (3): Tesla T4, Compute Capability 7.5 I0000 00:00:1764580885.880663 435036 cuda_dnn.cc:529] Loaded cuDNN version 91600 56/1563 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 4s 3ms/step - accuracy: 0.1412 - loss: 2.2791 I0000 00:00:1764580887.779438 435036 device_compiler.h:188] Compiled cluster using XLA! This line is logged at most once for the lifetime of the process. 1563/1563 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 12s 6ms/step - accuracy: 0.3583 - loss: 1.7365 - val_accuracy: 0.5648 - val_loss: 1.2296 Epoch 2/10 1563/1563 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 5s 3ms/step - accuracy: 0.5773 - loss: 1.1926 - val_accuracy: 0.6113 - val_loss: 1.1144 Epoch 3/10 1563/1563 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 6s 4ms/step - accuracy: 0.6359 - loss: 1.0318 - val_accuracy: 0.6422 - val_loss: 1.0173 Epoch 4/10 1563/1563 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 6s 4ms/step - accuracy: 0.6779 - loss: 0.9201 - val_accuracy: 0.6631 - val_loss: 0.9509 Epoch 5/10 1563/1563 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 6s 4ms/step - accuracy: 0.6988 - loss: 0.8579 - val_accuracy: 0.6783 - val_loss: 0.9253 Epoch 6/10 1563/1563 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 6s 4ms/step - accuracy: 0.7286 - loss: 0.7864 - val_accuracy: 0.6929 - val_loss: 0.8985 Epoch 7/10 1563/1563 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 6s 4ms/step - accuracy: 0.7432 - loss: 0.7304 - val_accuracy: 0.6979 - val_loss: 0.8867 Epoch 8/10 1563/1563 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 6s 4ms/step - accuracy: 0.7621 - loss: 0.6853 - val_accuracy: 0.7063 - val_loss: 0.8702 Epoch 9/10 1563/1563 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 6s 4ms/step - accuracy: 0.7784 - loss: 0.6351 - val_accuracy: 0.7042 - val_loss: 0.8613 Epoch 10/10 1563/1563 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 6s 4ms/step - accuracy: 0.7899 - loss: 0.5962 - val_accuracy: 0.7076 - val_loss: 0.8790
Evaluate the model
plt.plot(history.history['accuracy'], label='accuracy')
plt.plot(history.history['val_accuracy'], label = 'val_accuracy')
plt.xlabel('Epoch')
plt.ylabel('Accuracy')
plt.ylim([0.5, 1])
plt.legend(loc='lower right')
test_loss, test_acc = model.evaluate(test_images, test_labels, verbose=2)
313/313 - 1s - 2ms/step - accuracy: 0.7076 - loss: 0.8790

print(test_acc)
0.7075999975204468
Your simple CNN has achieved a test accuracy of over 70%. Not bad for a few lines of code! For another CNN style, check out the TensorFlow 2 quickstart for experts example that uses the Keras subclassing API and tf.GradientTape.
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