Because it's not for the benefits of those receiving the funding. It's money to pay people willing to improve how AI does math so AI companies can be even more effective and rendering human endeavors unprofitable. Math is a hot target right now and they're going after it.
replyIt's completely selfish and won't help anyone except those at the top.
It’s simple: Because Jim Simons (who founded RenTech and Simons Foundation) was a prominent mathematician himself.
replyHe was also a major backer of autism research, because his family member had it. People spend money to where their passion is.
> Why this one and not all the others that have to adapt to the AI era?
replyMathematicians are not dummies?
Suggesting all the other are dummies? And even if that is what you are suggesting, wouldn't that make them the group that needs support the least?
reply> Suggesting all the other are dummies?
replyIn a sense, yes. There is no Simons Foundation for laid-off programmers. Taxi drivers and truckers, meanwhile, are really just trying to block change.
> wouldn't that make them the group that needs support the least?
I don't know. From a practical perspective, I am more confident the world will need mathematicians in 50 years than that it will need coders.