What are artificial neural networks?
An artificial neural network (ANN) is an information-processing model inspired by the way the densely interconnected structure of the mammalian brain processes information. Although ANNs have been elaborated since the late 1950s, it was not until the mid-1980s that algorithms became sophisticated enough for general applications. Today ANNs are being applied to an increasing number of real world problems of considerable complexity. They are often good at solving problems that are too complex for conventional technologies (e.g. problems that do not have an algorithmic solution or for which an algorithmic solution is too complex to be found) and are often well suited to problems that people are good at solving but which traditional methods are not.
Sources
Sovan Lek’s homepage: http://st24-cesac.ups-tlse.fr/slek/