What Does Backpropagation Mean?
Backpropagation is an algorithm used in artificial intelligence (AI) to fine-tune mathematical weight functions and improve the accuracy of an artificial neural network's outputs.
A neural network can be thought of as a group of connected input/output (I/O) nodes. The level of accuracy each node produces is expressed as a loss function (error rate). Backpropagation calculates the mathematical gradient of a loss function with respect to the other weights in the neural network. The calculations are then used to give artificial network nodes with high error rates less weight than nodes with lower error rates.
Backpropagation uses a methodology called chain rule to improve outputs. Basically, after each forward pass through a network, the algorithm performs a backward pass to adjust the model’s weights.
An important goal of backpropagation is to give data scientists insight into how changing a weight function will change loss functions and the overall behaviour of the neural network. The term is sometimes used as a synonym for "error correction."