The tech industry claims it applies machine learning all over the place, but I doubt it actually moves the needle much.

Is that opinion based on anything firmer than a pessimistic outlook?

Lots of people jump on any trend, it doesn't mean the hype is unjustified or that nobody is "moving the needle" with that trend. Recommendations (e-commerce, advertising, music, etc) have been pretty revolutionized by it.

As a personal anecdote, the quality of the recommendations I receive across the board has been roughly inversely proportional to the level hype around ML in the tech press and academia.

C.f. Youtube's, Amazon and Netflix (products that bet BIG on recommendations) being incapable of recommending compelling material.

> Recommendations (e-commerce, advertising, music, etc) have been pretty revolutionized by it.

I'd like to learn more about how they've been revolutionized by it. Any sources you could share?

ML contributes to a significant fraction of revenue at three of the world's largest companies (Amazon, Google, Facebook - largely through recommendations and ad ranking). It also drives numerous features that other tech companies build into their products to stay competitive (think FaceID on iPhone). Hard to argue that it doesn't move the needle...