Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are plenty of researchers using machine learning for NP-complete problems. Are you saying that this work is fruitless or just that the current state of the art is still in “1980s AI” territory?
1980s style AI, such as Binary Decision Diagrams for automated reasoning, have continued to evolve over the last 40 years. The state of the art, today, remain BDD-based methodologies. I guess in theory machine learning could take a swing at the problem. And sure, some professor out there is probably trying to mix the fields and find new solutions or something. But the bulk of the work, and problem-solving, is BDDs fo…
I don’t know much about chip design, but am researching automated mechanical design and your description fits there too: most of the more successful approaches are based on old-school algorithms. I suspect machine learning can help speed these up but it isn’t clear yet how effective this will be.