I've been working in this space for a few years, as an engineer and now founder, and I think a lot of savvy investors are beyond this.
In my experience, everyone who is informed acknowledges that ML is very powerful, but the algorithms are widely accessible.
Instead, it seems that investors are looking for a company that protects itself with a proprietary source of data that allows for results that are unobtainable by competitors. Also, to a lesser extent, domain expertise that allows them to tailor existing ML architectures specifically for the problem at hand.
In my experience, everyone who is informed acknowledges that ML is very powerful, but the algorithms are widely accessible.
Instead, it seems that investors are looking for a company that protects itself with a proprietary source of data that allows for results that are unobtainable by competitors. Also, to a lesser extent, domain expertise that allows them to tailor existing ML architectures specifically for the problem at hand.