How can a neural network read a sentence one part at a time while carrying information forward? A recurrent neural network (RNN) is designed for sequences: it processes successive inputs while retaining and updating state. This makes it useful when earlier words or signals matter to later decisions. section 10.5
RNNs are especially associated with natural language processing, where systems analyze language and respond or act. They support applications such as sentiment analysis, machine translation, speech recognition, text summarization, and chatbots. section 10.5
Related sequence-processing architectures include:
- Long short-term memory networks (LSTMs), described as a more advanced version of recurrent neural networks. section 10.5
- Gated recurrent units (GRUs), another more advanced architecture for processing text. section 10.5









