Neural network
Beginner
A computer program that learns from examples instead of being told the rules. Inside, it’s a huge pile of numbers that get multiplied and added.
Novice
A model made of layers. Each layer multiplies its input by a grid of learned numbers (the weights), adds them up and applies a simple function. Training adjusts the weights until the outputs are useful.
Expert
A composition of parameterized layers (linear/convolutional, attention, normalization, nonlinearities). The linear and attention layers are matrix multiplications, which is why accelerators are built around them.
Explained in What the workload needs (Architectures).
See also: Weights (parameters), Matrix multiplication (GEMM).