Answers.Body: <p>To vastly oversimplify a lot of the progress of modern research in AI/neural nets, the recent advances stems from applicational improvements of the back propagation algorithm. </p>
  
  <p>ex: our recent possession of big data (it turns out that back-prop works very well if you have lots of data to feed into the network), increased computing power to harness that data, and creative network designs to leverage that computing power (deep learning).</p>
  
  <p>So far I haven't found a good source that integrates the knowledge of current practice of neural networks into the classical study of AI nicely. But if you are still interested you can read this modern classic textbook on neural networks and make your own judgements. </p>
  
  <p><a href="http://www.deeplearningbook.org" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.deeplearningbook.org</a></p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2017-05-18T20:45:53.117Z
Answers.Text: Thanks. From your response and the book, it seems that our increased computing power and data plus our refinement of machine learning / neural network algorithms is what has put AI back in the spotlight.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Brian
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-05-18T16:34:44.327Z
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Answers.UserDisplayName: k.c. sayz 'k.c sayz'
Body: <p>I took a few AI courses in college (1999-2003), and we used the first edition of <em>AI: A Modern Approach</em>. We covered a lot of topics and programming, including classical AI, neural networks, and temporal difference learning.</p>
  
  <p>Over the past few years, AI has had a resurgence. </p>
  
  <p><em>Is this resurgence due to new AI theory or just better (more) computational power and data so that the theories (e.g., neural networks) to be more effective? Or is it a combination of both?</em> </p>
  
  <p>I want to get up to speed on what's happened in AI since the early 2000s, and I want to know what to cover -- what is the most significant advancement?</p>
  
Tags: <history>
Title: What caused the resurgence of AI since the early 2000s?
UserDisplayName: Brian
ThreadText: # What caused the resurgence of AI since the early 2000s?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2017-05-18)
  
  I took a few AI courses in college (1999-2003), and we used the first edition of *AI: A Modern Approach*. We covered a lot of topics and programming, including classical AI, neural networks, and temporal difference learning.
  
  Over the past few years, AI has had a resurgence.
  
  *Is this resurgence due to new AI theory or just better (more) computational power and data so that the theories (e.g., neural networks) to be more effective? Or is it a combination of both?*
  
  I want to get up to speed on what's happened in AI since the early 2000s, and I want to know what to cover -- what is the most significant advancement?
  
  **Tags:** history
  
  
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  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2017-05-18. Score: 2 | Accepted answer
  
  To vastly oversimplify a lot of the progress of modern research in AI/neural nets, the recent advances stems from applicational improvements of the back propagation algorithm.
  
  ex: our recent possession of big data (it turns out that back-prop works very well if you have lots of data to feed into the network), increased computing power to harness that data, and creative network designs to leverage that computing power (deep learning).
  
  So far I haven't found a good source that integrates the knowledge of current practice of neural networks into the classical study of AI nicely. But if you are still interested you can read this modern classic textbook on neural networks and make your own judgements.
  
  <http://www.deeplearningbook.org>
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Thanks. From your response and the book, it seems that our increased computing power and data plus our refinement of machine learning / neural network algorithms is what has put AI back in the spotlight.  
  
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