What Are Neural Networks?

Many of the biggest advances in AI are driven by artificial neural networks. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are the connection of mathematical functions joined together in a format inspired by the neural networks found in the human brain. These ANNs are capable of extracting complex patterns from data, applying these patterns to unseen data to classify/recognize the data. In this way, the machine "learns". That's a quick rundown on neural networks, but let's take a closer look at neural networks to better understand what they are and how they operate.