ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

History of artificial neural networks

Okay kiddo, let's talk about the history of artificial neural networks!

A long time ago, people started realizing that the brain is very good at learning and recognizing patterns - like colors, shapes, and sounds. Scientists wanted to figure out how the brain works and how we can make computers do the same things as the brain.

They started building artificial neural networks that mimic the way the brain works. These networks are made up of layers of artificial neurons, which are like tiny cells that can communicate with each other.

In the 1940s, a scientist named Warren McCullough and a mathematician named Walter Pitts came up with the first artificial neuron model. This was a basic building block that could take in information and produce an output.

Then, in the 1950s, a computer scientist named Frank Rosenblatt created the Perceptron, which was the first artificial neural network that could learn and recognize patterns. It was used to recognize handwritten numbers and letters.

However, people soon realized that artificial neural networks were limited by the technology of the time. They were difficult to train and weren't very good for solving complex problems.

In the 1980s, a breakthrough happened when a scientist named Geoffrey Hinton developed a new way to train neural networks called backpropagation. This made it much easier to train artificial neural networks and helped them become more accurate and powerful.

Since then, artificial neural networks have been used for many things, like image recognition, natural language processing, speech recognition, and even playing games like chess and Go. They've become an important tool in fields like computer science, engineering, and medicine.

So, in short, scientists have been studying the brain and trying to figure out how to make computers learn and recognize patterns like the brain does. They've developed artificial neural networks that are made up of layers of artificial neurons, and have used them for many important tasks.