ChatGPT Is Built With Millions of These (Sort of): Understanding the OG Perceptron
Last Updated on December 9, 2025 by Editorial Team
Author(s): Sayan Chowdhury
Originally published on Towards AI.
Understanding the OG Perceptron
Neural networks look complex from the outside, but at their core they are built from one simple unit. This unit is called the perceptron.

The article explains the perceptron, the simplest form of a neural network, which serves as a tiny decision maker by taking a set of inputs to decide between two outcomes. It discusses how perceptrons inspired modern deep learning systems, focusing on their structure, operation, and learning processes. Practical examples illustrate perceptron’s ability to classify data and highlights the limitations of perceptrons in handling complex problems that are not linearly separable. Overall, it emphasizes the perceptron’s foundational role in understanding neural networks and modern AI systems like ChatGPT.
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