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I'm not sure I understand your 'cars' comment. The vast majority of people who drive cars have no idea how an engine works yet they are completely dependent on them.

'How' something works doesn't affect it's impact on society, the more important consideration is 'what' it does.

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My original point was that machine learning is not something that the average person can apply in his or her own business yet. Yes, big tech companies use it to improve their operations, but a small business owner can't define what would even be an applicable ML problem for their business yet. Millions of small businesses have websites, and even their own custom software, yet ML is still out of reach for many of these business. This is where I think a huge impact can, but has yet, to be made.

I completely agree with you. It just seemed like your initial comment was dismissing the effect/impact of ML because not everyone has the time to learn how to implement it.

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