Or do you mean? 2. Real mathematicians will continue to devote a significant part of their life/energy to mathematics research as a hobby, even if no one is paying them (in any way) to do it? That seems more of a reach and makes me wonder if many currently folks current employed as mathematicians aren't 'Real mathematicians' from your point of view.
Discoveries for abstract theory, entertainment, and perhaps regurgitating media, or even basic education can be done with the help of LLMs, but you can't make anything. You can't test anything. You aren't living in the real world. You'll just be lulled into the false belief that everything is simple and fine and beautiful, just as you always wanted, and as airplanes fall from the sky.
Hey, maybe it could work on Cosmology, if you gave it access to the data?
You are absolutely right!
So, only the wealthy or sponsored?
I don't expect Sam Altman and his ilk to deliver such a world to us, but the problem is Altman, not the tech itself.
With the assistance of AI, we are entering a golden age of individual math research without the need of huge institutions
New best prompt:
Write me a really cool math proof that will make me lots of money fast!
Why not let it just spit out the next token on its own without interference, if you can barely fool yourself into believing you understand what it proves... or hallucinates.
But external funding, e.g. from the NSF, also supports conferences -- and I suspect that few people would be willing to attend if they had to pay out of pocket. Without this opportunity to talk to one another, the field would be much worse off.
I couldn't do that, but I know there are people more passionate than me.