Artificial Neural Networks
Artificial Neural Networks
Do you know how the brain works? Well, it has neurons or nerve cells that are the primary
units of both the brain and the nerve system. These neurons receive sensory input from the
outside world which they process and then provide the output which might act as the input
to the next neuron. Each of these neurons is connected to other neurons in complex
arrangements at synapses. Now, are you wondering how this is related to Artificial Neural
Networks? Well, Artificial Neural Networks are modelled after the neurons in the human
brain. Let’s check out what they are in detail and how do they learn information.
Artificial Neural Networks contain artificial neurons which are called units. These units are
arranged in a series of layers that together constitute the whole Artificial Neural Networks in
a system. A layer can have only a dozen units or millions of units as this depends on the
complexity of the system. Commonly, Artificial Neural Network has an input layer, output
layer as well as hidden layers. The input layer receives data from the outside world which the
neural network needs to analyze or learn about. Then this data passes through one or multiple
hidden layers that transform the input into data that is valuable for the output layer. Finally,
the output layer provides an output in the form of a response of the Artificial Neural Networks
to input data provided.
In the majority of neural networks, units are interconnected from one layer to another. Each
of these connections has weights that determine the influence of one unit on another unit. As
the data transfers from one unit to another, the neural network learns more and more about
the data which eventually results in an output from the output layer.
Artificial neural networks are trained using a training set. For example, suppose you want to
teach an ANN to recognize a cat. Then it is shown thousands of different images of cats so
that the network can learn to identify a cat. Once the neural network has been trained enough
using images of cats, then you need to check if it can identify cat images correctly. This is
done by making the ANN classify the images it is provided by deciding whether they are cat
images or not. The output obtained by the ANN is corroborated by a human-provided
description of whether the image is a cat image or not. If the ANN identifies incorrectly then
back-propagation is used to adjust whatever it has learned during training. Back-propagation
is done by fine-tuning the weights of the connections in ANN units based on the error rate
obtained. This process continues until the artificial neural network can correctly recognize a
cat in an image with minimal possible error rates.
What are the types of Artificial Neural Networks?
1. Social Media
Artificial Neural Networks are used heavily in Social Media. For example, let’s take
the ‘People you may know’ feature on Facebook that suggests you people that you might
know in real life so that you can send them friend requests. Well, this magical effect is
achieved by using Artificial Neural Networks that analyze your profile, your interests, your
current friends, and also their friends and various other factors to calculate the people you
might potentially know. Another common application of Machine Learning in social media
is facial recognition. This is done by finding around 100 reference points on the person’s
face and then matching them with those already available in the database using convolutional
neural networks.
3. Healthcare
Artificial Neural Networks are used in Oncology to train algorithms that can identify
cancerous tissue at the microscopic level at the same accuracy as trained physicians. Various
rare diseases may manifest in physical characteristics and can be identified in their premature
stages by using Facial Analysis on the patient photos. So the full-scale implementation of
Artificial Neural Networks in the healthcare environment can only enhance the diagnostic
abilities of medical experts and ultimately lead to the overall improvement in the quality of
medical care all over the world.
4. Personal Assistants
I am sure you all have heard of Siri, Alexa, Cortana, etc. and also heard them based on the
phones you have!!! These are personal assistants and an example of speech recognition that
uses Natural Language Processing to interact with the users and formulate a response
accordingly. Natural Language Processing uses artificial neural networks that are made to
handle many tasks of these personal assistants such as managing the language syntax,
semantics, correct speech, the conversation that is going on, etc.