Neural nets and artificial intelligence

Neural nets are aggregates of interconnected nerve cells, or neurons. The human brain, for example, is a neural net comprising about ten billion interconnected neurons. Some how, such a net learns and remembers, thinks and feels. It is the substrate for behavior and the embodiment of mind. In the past half-century many attempts have been made to model the ways in which neural nets work, particularly those involved in seeing and moving. In this article, however, we shall concentrate on a somewhat more abstract, but fundamental, problem?the representation of external events inside neural nets. In our view this problem is central to any understanding of intelligent behavior in minds or machines. We will conclude by discussing neural nets in relation to contempo rary studies of artificial intelligence.