Lecun

The MNIST dataset (Modified National Institute of Standards and Technology) has been very influential in machine learning and computer vision. It is an easy and popular dataset that has been used since it's inception in 1998 as a benchmark for Machine Learning Models. Historically it has enhanced the evolution of OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and assisted in the emergence of neural networks.

The story of MNIST begins with the NIST dataset, developed by the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology in the late 1980s. The original dataset was created to facilitate research in OCR systems, which were becoming increasingly relevant for automating tasks like check processing and mail sorting. NIST's dataset consisted of tens of thousands of handwritten digits collected from various sources, including Census Bureau employees and high school students.