Then what? math, the kind LLMs are making "obsolete" is a pursuit unlike any other. What other field would tickle the kind of mind attracted by math the same way? I doubt they went into it for the money.
Human-crafted religious items and artwork may be more appealing than machine-crafted replicas.
I assumed the student ultimately wants a career that is financially viable.
> Then what?
Literally anything else?
Ironically, this very attitude could lead to AI creating one of the biggest slowdowns in progress in history.
It's this one, but different careers will diminish at different rates. Mathematics was already not financially well rewarded, and current AI is basically better than everyone in the field.
> this very attitude could lead to AI creating one of the biggest slowdowns in progress in history
I think there are enough young people with pre-AI experience that we'll probably develop superintelligence before they retire, so I don't really think a near-term lack of fresh talent will result in any significant slowdown.
Then why are frontier labs ploughing millions into racing human math researchers when they're already cash-strapped? What's the ROI for that?
> we'll probably develop superintelligence before they retire.
That ship has sailed:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/09/inau...