No, people care, interest is growing. There's even an /O'Reilly/ book, 'Programming Collective Intelligence'. If the growth rate hasn't been enough to catch you

No, people care, interest is growing. There's even an /O'Reilly/ book, 'Programming Collective Intelligence'. If the growth rate hasn't been enough to catch your un-aided attention, well I don't have data, but my sense is that the technical culture knows it's the /here/ thing and the way things are going to be. (A popular-level book, 'Super Crunchers' just came out too, btw.) If it means anything, be glad you're that little bit ahead of the curve; but the curve is there. I share your frustration that Machine Learning isn't part of the /core curriculum/ of every CS program, but I bet it'll become more widely available at least. The job market for ML professors is no doubt going to be very, very good shortly.