This document provides an overview of artificial neural networks (ANNs). It discusses how ANNs are inspired by biological neural networks and are composed of interconnected nodes that mimic neurons. ANNs use a learning process to update synaptic connection weights between nodes based on training data to perform tasks like pattern recognition. The document outlines the history of ANNs and covers popular applications. It also describes common ANN properties, architectures, and the backpropagation algorithm used for training multilayer networks.