IMHO, the two are incomparable. The exponential growth rate of Moore's Law was driven largely by a linear rate of shrinkage in 2D, which drove up clock rates geometrically as microarchitecture component distances shrank two-fold (until CMOS' heat finally fought back). ML has no similar geometric driven basis that will continue to drive its rate of growth superlinear.
I suspect this plot is Dean's way of paying homage to Patterson, since he and Hennessy were famous for similar plots describing CPU performance in their two architecture textbooks.
I suspect that only a minority of ML PhD graduates stay in academia. So even though the growth is exponential, it's probably much closer to 1 than to the student:professor ratio.
I suspect this plot is Dean's way of paying homage to Patterson, since he and Hennessy were famous for similar plots describing CPU performance in their two architecture textbooks.