Neural networks? Machine learning? Here's your secret decoder for AI buzzwords

AI is everywhere at the moment, and it's responsible for everything from the virtual assistants on our smartphones to the self-driving cars soon to be filling our roads to the cutting-edge image recognition systems reported on by yours truly. Unless you've been living under a rock for the past decade, there's good a chance you've heard of it before -- and probably even used it. Right now, artificial intelligence is to Silicon Valley what One Direction is to 13-year-old girls: an omnipresent source of obsession to throw all your cash at, while daydreaming about getting married whenever Harry Styles is finally ready to settle down. But what exactly is AI? -- and can terms like "machine learning," "artificial neural networks," "artificial intelligence" and "Zayn Malik" (we're still working on that analogy…) be used interchangeably? To help you make sense of some of the buzzwords and jargon you'll hear when people talk about AI, we put together this simple guide help you wrap your head around all the different flavors of artificial intelligence -- If only so that you don't make any faux pas when the machines finally take over.