The bar to acquire the technical skills of an ML engineer could, to continue the example, be likened to the bar to acquire the skills of an automotive engineer.

The bar to acquire the technical skills of an ML engineer could, to continue the example, be likened to the bar to acquire the skills of an automotive engineer. It's a technically skilled profession. But the industries it empowered to arise (drivers) have much lower bars to entry. The point is that ML will create jobs not just in the production of ML but primarily in the application of ML. We cannot anticipate what that looks like, but it may be as simple as a clerk who speaks to a Star Trek-like computer and says "Computer, extrapolate what this person would look like in ten years and display." The more we pursue new technologies boldly without fear of the consequences the more power we give to the common man to get things done that would've previously been impossible to him.