Typical academic hubris. Neural networks aren't toys. I've seen billion dollar systems based on them. And I believe an RBM was one of the strongest component

Typical academic hubris. Neural networks aren't toys. I've seen billion dollar systems based on them. And I believe an RBM was one of the strongest components of the winning Netflix algorithm. The ML academics are biased against neural nets because they're difficult to analyze mathematically making it hard to fill blackboards with impressive looking equations.