I have no idea how and why GenAI would be useful in your profession. I'm sure a lot of money is moved there (not sure about the profits though), but it's not clear to me how software itself is budging that needle. I suppose better algorithms and better understanding of geology will do it, but software itself seems just subservient to that goal.

I guess what I'm saying is that "domain knowledge" is taking software development for a ride here. The software is just the vehicle, the science is the engine here and I can see why companies like OpenAI start going for the low-hanging fruits first instead.

Your specific company might be profitable, but does automating "mineral exploration" give you leverage over quite literally all other domains? My guess is not. For "CRUD" it is a resounding yes, it provides gigantic leverage. Once you automate basic software development you enter a new world. 10 billion, 10 trillion, all bets are off. You automate the creation of the next iteration of automation and on we go. Let's hope it takes a while for this take off. I can't see ourselves being ready for it.

My guess is it'll take a decade or so for real AI science to start taking off though - if that soon - so you're probably fine for now.

Yes. My point was that LLMs aren't currently good for everything. The original commenter literally said they were good at everything and I offered a counterpoint of something they're not good at: Most science.

(And yes, a lot of science is software. Analysis is software.)