Definition
Plain language
A computing system, loosely inspired by the brain, made of layers of simple numbers that get tuned until the whole thing can spot patterns or produce answers.
As stated in the literature
A parameterized function composed of layers of weighted connections and nonlinearities, trained by gradient descent to map inputs to outputs; transformers, MLPs, and state-space models are all instances.
Also called: neural networks, neural net, neural nets
Why it matters: It matters because this trainable, pattern-finding structure underlies nearly all modern AI, from image recognition to language models.
For example, a neural network can be trained on many photos of cats and dogs until it reliably tells a new picture apart.
Heard on the show
“The MiRA fix is to train a *second* neural network.”Episode 008 — Why Long-Horizon AI Agents Get Stuck, and a Milestone-Based Fix That Helps