The truth about machine learning (and deep learning) - Marco Varone Expert System

I am more than happy to see that after the full hype period where everybody was talking about AI and machine learning as the solution for all the problems of the world (with the sky as the only limit), intelligent and honest persons/experts are publishing more and more articles where the things are described as they are and the expectations are set in a correct way. It took more than expected for this to happen but it was inevitable and only a matter of time: as Lincoln said "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time". Out of the many articles that have been published recently, let me link this one that is clear, short and that can be understood by nearly everyone. There are some statements that are very important to highlight because they explain very clearly that ML techniques can be useful (very useful in a few specific cases) but are much more limited and simple than many like to think and that they still require a huge amount of work and perspiration (sorry but also here there are no free lunches:-). Despite evocative names like "artificial intelligence," "machine learning" and "neural networks," such technologies have little to do with human thought or intelligence.