They&#x27;re not rubbish, they have their uses.  You kind of outlined where deep learning tends to shine - when you have large amounts of data and massive CPU infrastructure.  Pattern recognition and machine learning work, but typically require more manual overhead than throwing tons of data at &quot;dumb&quot; algorithms to achieve the same output.<p>In end, you need both the algorithms and the data to do the work, and choosing between the two leaves you still wanting the other.