> It's the bedrock of all other science. The goal is to find solutions and to advance the field…

That may be true but that may not be the feature that attracts people to the field.

> As we solve lower level problems, we can unlock real world math solutions.

That is an argument often made for funding mathematics research. But again it may not be the thing that attracted people to the field.

Note I don’t share all the doom and gloom of some folks in the math community but it is a valid point that people who might otherwise have gone into the field may choose not to anymore.

Also, math research has typically focused a large amount of energy abstracting and generalizing results. Your suggestion about solving real problems usually moves in the other direction. If the powers that be with all the money decide AI can solve all the real problems that exist (rightly or wrongly) then mathematics research community will have a problem.

> Note I don’t share all the doom and gloom of some folks in the math community but it is a valid point that people who might otherwise have gone into the field may choose not to anymore.

Isn’t that only natural? I probably would have stayed in physics and not gone into software if AI had been around 25 years ago. People gravitate to areas where their innate abilities are appreciated and can make a difference.

But you also have to take into account that people from outside academia can also contribute to math. Especially nowadays with the help of AI. Just because the role of academia is shrinking doesn't mean math progress is slowing.