"The term came from computer scientists trying to copy a very simple idea from how brain cells work. The name stuck, even though AI doesnât work like a human brain."
đŻ!!!
The term âneural networkâ has been used so casually and so often that itâs worth clarifying what it actually means.
The original, true meaning is biological. A neural network is a population of interconnected neurons inside the nervous system of a living organism.
An artificial neural network is software that processes numbers through connected layers. During training, it adjusts those connections so it gets better at turning an input into the expected output.
Calling those units âneuronsâ doesnât make them biological neurons and itâs borderline disingenuous. They donât fire like nerve cells, they donât have a nervous system, they donât feel anything, they donât have a soul, they donât experience anything, they donât understand what theyâre processing in the human sense, and they donât form thoughts in the human sense.
The term came from computer scientists trying to copy a very simple idea from how brain cells work. The name stuck, even though AI doesnât work like a human brain.
That language is creating the wrong mental model because when people hear âneural networkâ, âlearningâ, âmemoryâ, âreasoningâ and âattentionâ, they imagine something operating like a mind. Those words describe mathematical operations and software behaviour.
âLearningâ usually means adjusting parameters. âMemoryâ usually means stored information or retained context. âAttentionâ is a mechanism for weighting relationships between pieces of data. âReasoningâ describes a pattern of outputs that can resemble human reasoning.
Those terms donât mean software is doing the biological equivalent.
AI can produce extraordinary results without having a brain, consciousness, feelings, intent, or human understanding. That doesnât diminish the technology. In some areas, AI can analyse, classify, predict, generate and solve problems at a scale and speed that a human could never match.
Autonomous AI doesnât change any of this either. Autonomous systems can make decisions, choose between actions, use tools and continue operating without a person approving every step. They can do that because people designed it, defined its objectives, gave it permissions, connected it to tools and allowed it to make those decisions.
Autonomy isnât the same as independent agency.
An autonomous system can act without a person pressing a button for every action, but it still operates because its creators gave it the capability and authority to do so. It doesnât suddenly acquire feelings, motives or moral responsibility because the software can choose between available actions.
The terminology makes the technology sound more human than the underlying mechanics justify.
This is important because people are starting to assign responsibility to AI systems instead of tech founders. A âneural networkâ didnât decide to compromise a computer network. Software produced an output or took an action because people designed it, trained it, configured it, gave it capabilities, connected it to systems and deployed it.
AI deserves appreciation for what it can actually do but it doesnât need a fictional human identity to make it impressive.
The word âneuralâ shouldnât make us forget that.