From your second graph, Iran and Pakistan have stronger interests in Machine Learning than the US. (I am not surprised about India, South Korea, and China though).
Is the interest in advanced Info Tech that widespread in those countries or simply because the only people who could use Google in those countries are government-sanctioned researchers? Anyone familiar with the reason could shine light for the rest of us?
Pakistan's internet is generally open (except youtube and pornography). But there is no widespread interest in ML particularly. Only a few companies - most of them outsourcing from the US.
Is the interest in advanced Info Tech that widespread in those countries or simply because the only people who could use Google in those countries are government-sanctioned researchers? Anyone familiar with the reason could shine light for the rest of us?