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I don't know why this comment is downvoted. It is true. The vast majority of businesses will never deal with machine learning. ML has very limited applications

I don't know why this comment is downvoted. It is true. The vast majority of businesses will never deal with machine learning. ML has very limited applications in the "real world", as opposed to regression analysis with some small samples.

ska 11y ago
Your point that simple regressions with small(ish) sample sets are important is valid. This: > "The vast majority of businesses will never deal with machine learning." However, is myopic. It plausibly will not hold for much longer in most areas, and is already not true for a significant number of industries.
- blumkvist 11y ago
  I find ML and "3d printing" very similar in the expectations and extent business will adopt them.
  - ska 11y ago
    On what basis? They are not similar in any respect that I can think of. 3D printing has had limited impact for prototyping in the many decades it has been around, and in the expected quarters. That's pretty much what every analysis I've seen except a very few boosters have predicted, for what it's worth. On the other hand ML has fundamentally changed: document processing, search engines, remote sensing, retail sales, e-commerce, etc. ; It has also strongly impacted areas of logistics and shipping, manufacturing, (e.g. computer vision & robotics), medicine, law enforcement, finance, defense, also etc. It's also poised to find market advantages in many non-obvious industries as larger scale data becomes available... unclear how far that will extend. Where's the parallel you see?
    - IndianAstronaut 11y ago
      Many of the companies I have interviewed and all the ones I have worked for have set up ML and analytics teams in the last 5 years. It is a growing area and people are starting to understand its utility.
    - blumkvist 11y ago
      Poorly understood, high hopes, a lot lower practical applications. Predictions are not as applicable as one might think at first glance. I hope you do not confuse machine learning with statistics and data mining. They are very different.
      - ska 11y ago
        No, I do not make such a confusion. I hope you do not make the converse one, of re-categorizing techniques "out" of machine learning as soon as we understand how they work. At any rate, your experience in industry seems to be quite different than mine.
        deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]

ska 11y ago

Your point that simple regressions with small(ish) sample sets are important is valid. This: > "The vast majority of businesses will never deal with machine learning." However, is myopic. It plausibly will not hold for much longer in most areas, and is already not true for a significant number of industries.

blumkvist 11y ago
I find ML and "3d printing" very similar in the expectations and extent business will adopt them.
- ska 11y ago
  On what basis? They are not similar in any respect that I can think of. 3D printing has had limited impact for prototyping in the many decades it has been around, and in the expected quarters. That's pretty much what every analysis I've seen except a very few boosters have predicted, for what it's worth. On the other hand ML has fundamentally changed: document processing, search engines, remote sensing, retail sales, e-commerce, etc. ; It has also strongly impacted areas of logistics and shipping, manufacturing, (e.g. computer vision & robotics), medicine, law enforcement, finance, defense, also etc. It's also poised to find market advantages in many non-obvious industries as larger scale data becomes available... unclear how far that will extend. Where's the parallel you see?
  - IndianAstronaut 11y ago
    Many of the companies I have interviewed and all the ones I have worked for have set up ML and analytics teams in the last 5 years. It is a growing area and people are starting to understand its utility.
  - blumkvist 11y ago
    Poorly understood, high hopes, a lot lower practical applications. Predictions are not as applicable as one might think at first glance. I hope you do not confuse machine learning with statistics and data mining. They are very different.
    - ska 11y ago
      No, I do not make such a confusion. I hope you do not make the converse one, of re-categorizing techniques "out" of machine learning as soon as we understand how they work. At any rate, your experience in industry seems to be quite different than mine.
      - deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]