[Retric]

I would say PHD is sufficient to advance the field. That's no small thing, but only really overlaps at the start when just about anything advances the field and you need a broad focus.

Machine leaning for sorting peas at high speed is a very well trodden area at this point with a lot of industry specific domain knowledge. I expect self driving cars for example to reach a similar state in ~10-25 years.

The risk with a PHD is you miss the specific wave. But, if you want to stay on the bleeding edge it's probably well worth it.

[achompas]

> I would say PHD is sufficient to advance the field.

Yep! We’ve now made our way back to my initial point in response to OP. :)