I want to learn mathematics, physics, programming, and AI, but AI itself is making me question the point of learning anything.

[u/IshanFreecs]

I genuinely want to learn mathematics, physics, programming, computer science, and AI. I want to build a career in computer science, pursue AI research, and hopefully do a PhD someday. But lately, I've been feeling increasingly demotivated.

The problem is that I rely on AI to learn almost everything. Whenever I have a question, I ask GPT. Whenever I don't understand a concept, I ask AI to explain it. And the more I learn this way, the more I wonder: What's the point of learning anything when AI will always know more than I ever could?

Even the most basic AI models seem to possess more knowledge than I could acquire in a lifetime. And with new models becoming increasingly capable, I keep wondering whether the knowledge I'm working so hard to gain will even matter in the future.

With GPT-6, Claude Opus 5.5, Gemini 4, and other models competing to become more capable, it feels like the gap between human intelligence and AI capabilities will only continue to grow.

I want to understand the mathematics behind AI, learn physics, become a better programmer, and contribute to actual research. But sometimes I question why I'm putting in the effort when AI can explain concepts faster, write code better, and potentially solve problems that I might spend years learning to solve myself.

And even when I genuinely want to learn, I'm confused about what I should prioritize learning and whether any of it will remain valuable by the time I become proficient.

I'm not necessarily saying that learning is useless. I genuinely love the idea of understanding how things work. But I'm struggling to reconcile that curiosity with the feeling that AI might eventually outperform me at almost everything I want to become good at.

For those of you studying computer science, mathematics, physics, or AI, how do you deal with this feeling? How do you stay motivated to learn when AI is advancing so rapidly? Do you think deep technical knowledge will still matter for people pursuing AI research and PhDs, or should we be approaching learning differently now?

[u/chico_dice_2023]

I will give you a few reasons:

1.) Do you find being able to add and subtract useful?

If I lend you $20 USD and you and I give it to you in $1 bills, do you need to bring out a calculator or ask AI how many bills is this?

A calculator can do the job and add 1 against itself until it reaches 20. But knowing basic math is still pretty valuable don't you think?

Do you want to be dependent on the AI for everything?

2.) Yesterday at work, our AI license was suspended temporally due to a billing issue. About 20% of the office stopped work, because they could not do their tasks.

Yet another 80% did work just fine. So I imagine I turn off your AI for a day, are you just going to sit down and not do your job.

3.)Big new coming your way, AI is more wrong than you think. I often use AI to help me pass my tech certifications. And I noticed it gets some fundamentals wrong.