There are obvious approaches that haven’t been well explored. For example, we can create a lot of data using simulations, although there will be a gap between simulation and reality.
For the specific field(s) in question here (mechanical parts/products), I think there’s really three mostly separate domains—design, prototyping, and high volume manufacturing. The latter two seem easier to me (how to make a thing or a million things given an input picture/drawing/CAD), but the former (given a product spec, design a thing that satisfies the product requirements) is a much larger space of potential solutions and seems harder to have tight feedback loops (especially since you need to solve the “make it” domains first if you want testing to be fully automated).
For the specific field(s) in question here (mechanical parts/products), I think there’s really three mostly separate domains—design, prototyping, and high volume manufacturing. The latter two seem easier to me (how to make a thing or a million things given an input picture/drawing/CAD), but the former (given a product spec, design a thing that satisfies the product requirements) is a much larger space of potential solutions and seems harder to have tight feedback loops (especially since you need to solve the “make it” domains first if you want testing to be fully automated).