Artificial Intelligence for Business, 2nd Edition

12

What Are Artificial Neural Networks?

In this chapter:

• Grasping the basics of artificial neural networks

• Taking a close look at an individual neuron—the perceptron

• Enabling machines to make decisions

• Getting a machine to identify complex patterns

In a sense, an artificial neural network is inspired by the human brain. The keyword here is inspired, the same way a paper airplane is inspired by a supersonic jet. Whereas the brain is composed of physical entities called neurons, an artificial neural network is composed of nodes. Each node accepts and combines weighted input, adds bias (an adjustment), and performs a function on the result to ...