DL has shown great potential to revolutionize communication systems. This article provides an overview of the recent advancements in DL-based physical layer communications. DL can improve the performance of each individual block in communication systems or optimize the whole transmitter/receiver. Therefore, we categorize the applications of DL in physical layer communications into systems with and without block structures. For DL-based communication systems with the block structure, we demonstrate the power of DL in signal compression and signal detection. We also discuss the recent endeavors in developing DL-based end-to-end communication systems. Finally, potential research directions are identified to boost intelligent physical layer communications. Introduction