- 2069 Poush · 6 marks
Neural network; supervised vs unsupervised
Short answer
A neural network is a computing system of interconnected artificial neurons that learns by adjusting weights from data. Supervised learning uses labeled input-output pairs and a teacher signal to learn a mapping (e.g., back-propagation), while unsupervised learning uses only unlabeled data to discover patterns or clusters without a teacher (e.g., Kohonen SOM).
What is neural network? Differentiate between supervised and unsupervised learning.
Neural network
An artificial neural network (ANN) is a computing system made of many interconnected simple processing units (neurons) that work in parallel. Each connection carries a weight; the network learns by adjusting the weights from data. It is inspired by the biological brain and is used for classification, function approximation and pattern recognition.
Structure: input layer, one or more hidden layers, output layer. Each neuron computes y = f(Σ wᵢxᵢ + b).
Supervised vs unsupervised learning
| Point | Supervised learning | Unsupervised learning |
|---|---|---|
| Training data | Labelled: input with the desired output (target) | Unlabelled: inputs only |
| Teacher | A teacher/target gives the error signal | No teacher |
| Goal | Learn mapping from input to output | Discover structure, clusters or patterns |
| Feedback | Error = target − actual | None, or internal measure (similarity) |
| Tasks | Classification, regression | Clustering, dimensionality reduction, associations |
| Examples | Perceptron, back-propagation, decision trees | Kohonen SOM, k-means, competitive learning |
| Evaluation | Easy (compare with known labels) | Harder, no ground truth |
| Example | Spam detection from labelled emails | Grouping customers by buying behaviour |
✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)
Related questions
- Short note: supervised vs unsupervised · Artificial Intelligence, chapter 6
- Neural network; back-propagation · Artificial Intelligence, chapter 6
- Role of perceptron in neural network · Artificial Intelligence, chapter 6 · asked 2×
- Perceptron; neural network as OR gate · Artificial Intelligence, chapter 6 · asked 2×
- Perceptron; neural network as XOR gate · Artificial Intelligence, chapter 6 · asked 2×
- Neural network, back-propagation, perceptron · Artificial Intelligence, chapter 6
- Supervised vs unsupervised learning · Data Mining, chapter 3
- Short note: Neural network, perceptron rule · Data Mining, chapter 3