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this kind of disaggregation is imo not a product of AI as such so much as the relentless and stupefying drive toward optimization, profit, visibility, kpis, views, etc. that predates (and necessitates) ai

Ethan Mollick@emollick.bsky.social

What you are seeing in math right now is a consequence of the jagged frontier, and a precursor of what is to come in other professions. Yes, mathematicians do math, but they also have other tasks they view as important (mentor students, maintain a community, safeguard the future) that AI can't do.

in that sense what we are seeing in math right now is not really a "precursor" so much as a field that was partially shielded from that drrive rapidly undergoing the same kind of disaggregatory shock that, e.g., writers have been experiencing for the last many decades

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Right. Pure math seems the field most opposite writing, in that (a) it is highly specialized and recondite, such that v few people can understand the work in a given field; and (b) the many trained in lucrative applied math respect the pure as peak human achievement even if they don't get it

Meanwhile, writing, even in the specialized precincts of the university, is something almost all people do in some way, so the specialized gets calls jargony or whatever and is pilloried. If something can't be understood, it's the writer's fault, not a problem inherent to the topic, as in pure math.