In my view, whether a field is competitive or collaborative, depends a lot on the ethics of the people involved. I'm not saying that the ethics of academic research were idyllic, but at least they were the devil known. For instance during my graduate study (decades ago), I knew that I could talk to people about my project, and ask for advice. It was relatively low stakes research. In order to "scoop" my project, a person would have to seriously weigh whether to spend money on it, or on something else.

What will the ethics of math research be like in the AI era? Will it be like the apparent ethics of the tech oligarchs?