I honestly don't get what the author is trying to say.

> But pure mathematics is already in a conservatory, better known as the academy.

Yes, exactly. So "is mathematics about to enter the conservatory" is a quite weird question.

> who deserves funding, tenure, and fame

It's always been decided by a very small clique of academic elites and a few big companies who have too much R&D budget to spend. It's not something that can be decided by 'the pop' democratically. If you ask an average person how much we should spend on linguists and philosophers per year, the answer will be ~$0. I don't see how AI changes that.