I don't think that's really true, but you don't need the full context in ML in order to apply it to your field of interest. Just like you don't need the full co

I don't think that's really true, but you don't need the full context in ML in order to apply it to your field of interest. Just like you don't need the full context in Physics to apply it to an engineering problem. Some of the most successful ML researchers have read several decades of research papers. It's not uncommon to see references to papers from the 70s or 90s. Edit: No doubt that the relevant parts of stats, random matrix theory, and ML is a newer field than Physics or Chemistry, though.