We are pushing boundaries in the industry, sometimes in secret, but often cases making public contributions that are beyond the resources of the private sector.

We are pushing boundaries in the industry, sometimes in secret, but often cases making public contributions that are beyond the resources of the private sector. That's actually been part of the reason for it's explosion. See Google, Facebook, Amazon, Uber, all releasing public blurbs and repos of their research. And papers. The multidisciplinary nature of ML attracts science types who value publications. It's a sort of club. I'm talking about the people doing really cool and difficult stuff - robots, AI, self driving, cutting edge and high latent value. It's a strong incentive for them.