r/explainlikeimfive - ELI5: What are neural networks? Specifically RNNs.

The little league team you coach just won the big game, and you ask them if they want to go out for pizza or for burgers. Each kid starts screaming their preference, and you go with whatever was the loudest. This is basically how a neural net works but on multiple levels. The top-level nodes get some input, each detects a certain property and screams when it sees it...the more intense the property, the louder they scream. Now you have a bunch of nodes screaming "it's dark!", "it's has red!", "it's roundish!" as various volumes.