Today we are witnessing a new round of interest in AI and knowledge-based computing that is currently being called cognitive computing. This new round of commercial AI is based on the hugely more powerful computing platforms we have available today. Moreover, it is based on new AI techniques — with the emphasis on neural networks rather than business rules. Business rules provided the basis of some great expert systems, but they didn’t provide a basis for software systems that could learn and adapt — and neural networks do provide these advantages.