Neural nets have been around for quite some time. Why are they working now?

Neural nets have been around for quite some time. They have become popular only in the last few years. How come?

Geoffrey Hinton quickly addresses the question in his 'talk':https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcOMKXAw5VA&feature=youtu.be&t=21m29s

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Watch the entire talk!

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