Exactly. This article is titled "Understanding how AES encryption works", but it doesn't describe how AES encryption works! It only describes how AES works. AE

Exactly. This article is titled "Understanding how AES encryption works", but it doesn't describe how AES encryption works! It only describes how AES works. AES is a block cipher, basically an approximation of a "Pseudorandom Permutation" (PRP).[1] A PRP can be used for secure (authenticated) encryption, eg in AES-CCM or AES-GCM. PRPs can be used for semi-secure (unauthenticated) encryption, eg AES-CTR or AES-CBC. PRPs can be used to make a Message Authentication Code, eg CMAC. PRPs can be used to make a hash function (no direct example with AES, but Whirlpool uses a modified AES, and one could also use it in a Sponge construction, and Keccak uses an internal PRP). PRPs can be used to make a CSPRNG (random number generator), eg AES-DRBG. PRPs can even be used to make a public-key signature scheme: make a hash function (say, via a Sponge construction) and then make a Merkle hash-based signature scheme! The only common operation I don't know how to make with AES (or another PRP) as the main component is a Key Encapsulation Mechanism. Calling this an article on how "AES Encryption" works is a bit like writing an article "How Programming in C works" and then describing NAND gates, ALUs, instruction decoding, and other bits of how a CPU works. It's the wrong level entirely given the title. [1] A PRP is a sort of keyed super-shuffle. I'll use decks of cards for this analogy. A PRP is a bit like shuffling 52 decks of cards (in a deterministic way based on the state of an input deck) and taking the top card from each, then returning the resulting 52 cards as a "deck" of output. There can be repeated cards. A deck of all one card (say, ace of spades) will come out totally different, while a normal shuffle would just get you back 52 ace of spades. The determinism lets you repeat this process by knowing the input deck's state.