I am developing from scratch my first feed-forward fully-connected ANN based on batch learning mode on a toy training set. I am using back-propagation for calculating the gradient of the loss function with respect to weights and biases and using the gradient descent method as a learning rule. But when I print the training loss, it gets bigger as the epoch increases: E(0) on TrS is: [[7.83898769]] E(1) on TrS is: [[10.00738465]] E(2) on TrS is: [[10.76653098]] E(3) on TrS is: [[15.94001008]] E(4) on TrS is: [[23.80650667]] E(5) on TrS is: [[28.65805023]] E(6) on TrS is: [[29.56550719]] E(7) on TrS is: [[30.5424694]] E(8) on TrS is: [[34.26980112]] E(9) on TrS is: [[39.9948856]] This is my loss_functions.py file: import numpy as np def sum_of_squares(c, t, y, derivative=False): ret = 0 for k in range(c): ret += np.square(y - t) ret = 1 / 2 * ret if derivative: return y - t return ret this is my activation_functions.py file: import numpy as np def sigmoid(a, derivative=False): f_a = 1 / (1 + np.exp(-a)) df_a = np.multiply(f_a, (1 - f_a)) if derivative: return df_a return f_a def identity(a, derivative=False): f = a df = np.ones(np.shape(a)) if derivative: return df return f and this is the main.py file: from activation_functions import * from loss_functions import * class NeuralNetwork: def _init_(self): self.layers = [] def add_layer(self, layer): self.layers.append(layer) def create(self): for i, layer in enumerate(self.layers): if i == 0: layer.type = "input" else: if i == len(self.layers) - 1: layer.type = "output" else: layer.type = "hidden" layer.configure(self.layers[i - 1].neurons) def train(self, X, targets): MAX_EPOCHS = 10 loss_function = sum_of_squares E = 0 # errore sull'intero DS for epoch in range(MAX_EPOCHS): for i, x in enumerate(X): target = targets prediction = self.forward_prop(x.T) E_n = loss_function(c, target, prediction) E += E_n self.back_prop(target, local_loss=sum_of_squares) print("E(%d) on TrS is:" % epoch, E) # increasing!!! self.learning_rule(l_rate=0.05) def forward_prop(self, z): for layer in self.layers: z = layer.forward_prop_step(z) return z def back_prop(self, target, local_loss): for i, layer in enumerate(self.layers[:0:-1]): next_layer = self.layers[-i] prev_layer = self.layers[-i - 2] layer.back_prop_step(next_layer, prev_layer, target, local_loss) def learning_rule(self, l_rate): # GD for layer in self.layers: if layer.type != "input": layer.weight -= l_rate * layer.dE_dW layer.bias -= l_rate * layer.dE_db class Layer: def _init_(self, neurons, type=None, activation=None): self.dE_dW = 0 self.dE_db = 0 self.dEn_db = None # based on the n-th item self.dEn_dW = None # based on the n-th item self.dact_a = None self.out = None self.weight = None self.bias = None self.w_sum = None self.neurons = neurons self.type = type self.activation = activation self.deltas = None def configure(self, prev_layer_neurons): self.weight = np.asmatrix(np.random.normal(0, 0.5, (self.neurons, prev_layer_neurons))) self.bias = np.asmatrix(np.random.normal(0, 0.5, self.neurons)).T if self.activation is None: if self.type == "hidden": self.activation = sigmoid elif self.type == "output": self.activation = identity def forward_prop_step(self, z): if self.type == "input": self.out = z else: self.w_sum = np.dot(self.weight, z) + self.bias self.out = self.activation(self.w_sum) return self.out def back_prop_step(self, next_layer, prev_layer, target, local_loss): if self.type == "input": pass elif self.type == "output": self.dact_a = self.activation(self.w_sum, derivative=True) self.deltas = np.multiply(self.dact_a, local_loss(c, target, self.out, derivative=True)) else: self.dact_a = self.activation(self.w_sum, derivative=True) self.deltas = np.multiply(self.dact_a, np.dot(next_layer.weight.T, next_layer.deltas)) self.dEn_dW = np.dot(self.deltas, prev_layer.out.T) self.dEn_db = self.deltas self.dE_dW += self.dEn_dW self.dE_db += self.dEn_db if _name_ == '_main_': net = NeuralNetwork() for m in (2, 4, 4, 1): net.add_layer(Layer(m)) net.create() X = np.asmatrix([ [1, 0], [1, 1], [0, 1], [0, 0] ]) targets = np.asarray([1, 0, 0, 0]) net.train(X, targets) What I did for trying to fix the problem is: Check for any bug Decrease the learning rate (l_rate) Increase MAX_EPOCHS value Replace - symbol to + in GD formula Unfortunately none of these worked. There must be a hidden bug somewhere in the code... How can I resolve the issue? Continue reading...