In some tf. keras tutorials, I've seen them instantiated their model class like this:
model = tf.keras.Sequential()
While in some places, they use something like this:
model = tf.keras.Model(inputs=input, outputs=output)
But seeing here in the docs, they do seem the same, but I am not sure nor is it explicitly mentioned. What are the differences between the two?
There are two class API to define a model in tf. keras. According to the doc
Sequential class: Sequential groups a linear stack of layers into a tf. keras.Model.
Model class: Model group's layers into an object with training and inference features.
An Sequential model is the simplest type of model, a linear stack of layers. But there are some flaws in using the sequential model API, it's limited in certain points. We can't build complex networks such as multi-input or multi-output networks using this API.
But using Model class, we can instantiate a Model with the Functional API (and also with Subclassing the Model class) that allows us to create arbitrary graphs of layers. From this, we can get more flexibility and easily define models where each layer can connect not just with the previous and next layers but also share feature information with other layers in the model, for example, model-like ResNet, EfficientNet.
In fact, most of the SOTA model that you can get from tf.keras.applications is basically implemented using the Functional API. However, in subclassing API, we define our layers in __init__ and we implement the model's forward pass in the call method.
Generally speaking, all the model definitions using Sequential API, can be achieved in Functional API or Model Subclassing API. And in Functional API or Model Subclassing API, we can create complex layers that not possible to achieve in Sequential API. If you wondering which one to choose, the answer is, it totally depends on your need. However, check out the following blog post where we have discussed the various model strategies in tf. keras with more examples. Model Sub-Classing and Custom Training Loop from Scratch in TensorFlow 2
It's because they are from different versions of tensorflow. According to the documentation (TensorFlow 2.0), tf.keras.Sequential is the most recent way of calling the function. If you go to the documentation, and click on "View aliases", you can see the different aliases used in older version of Tensorflow for that function.
