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Ask HN: What to teach my kid if AI does math and CS?

devShark Thursday, January 15, 2026

I am home-schooling my kid. He shares my interest in math and CS, and he's really good at it.

I've been cheering him on a path towards academic success in these 2 fields. In parts because I am not much use at anything else, in parts because he likes it, in parts because that's where I found some measure of success in life.

However, I can't go through a day without reading another article about how AI solved an Erdös problem previously unsolved by humans[1], is getting gold medals at International Mathematical Olympiads[2], is replacing coders at Microsoft[3] and even architects[4].

This makes me really question what I am doing.

Sure, people tell me what matters is training your brain, it's never about the skill itself, but learning to learn, etc... Maybe that's right, but somehow, I can't shake the feeling that I am setting my kid on a path that leads directly into a solid brick wall.

What are the alternatives though?

Play video games all day long and wait for Universal Basic Income to kick in?

Encourage him to pivot towards humanities subject he has no strong interest in, that I would not be great at teaching, and that I've been taught young do not lead to great job opportunities?

Forget math and CS, and teach him how to build and run businesses, banning the reading of any article that shows AI might also be taking this over?

Close my eyes, do not listen to this feeling inside, and continue to teach python generators and linear algebra?

Does anyone have any suggestion, or random comment?

[1]: https://officechai.com/ai/gpt-5-2-and-harmonic-appear-to-have-autonomously-solved-an-erdos-problem-that-had-been-unsolved-by-humans-thus-far/

[2]: https://intuitionlabs.ai/articles/ai-reasoning-math-olympiad-imo

[3]: https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/29/microsoft-ceo-says-up-to-30-of-the-companys-code-was-written-by-ai/

[4]: https://x.com/rakyll/status/2007239758158975130

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