PL is an area with big challenges, but AI has even bigger challenges and the impact in the society is bigger, much bigger, too. I would change the question and ask why anyone shouldn't be interested in AI?
My point is that it is unlikely to make big steps now to advance in PL, but it is very likely you can do it in AI. The last 5 years have been crazy and the people working on it now is much more than few years ago.
Note: most probably you wont be getting human-like AI anytime soon
If we really create AI that is "indistinguishable of human Intelligence", then all questions about human jobs or research become moot, no?
If someone was to create AI that is human-equivalent (aka strong AI) then that would be their final project as a human being. There would be no need for human professional or academic effort after that point.
Creating AI with human level intelligence isn't going to be so great, most people are complete idiots. Creating AI with above human intelligence is a different story.
- AI might not like to work, as we don't like to work
- You suppose that if you create AI then the AI can create a more intelligence AI and this to the infinity. We don't know if the intelligence is unlimited or limited. We might have reach the top intelligence. (note: the more intelligent the brain the slower it is, and a bigger brain does not relate to intelligence)
And it's totally true! A good manager can make anything happen that their team can accomplish, and their impact can be huge. But some people want to actually work on the stuff, not work on the stuff that works on the stuff.
I'm probably wrong although, it's probably an exposure thing.
Now if you are a PL person interested in AI we would love to have you and your expertise!
Oh and if you want to use AI to solve PL problems like program synthesis and program completion, that's cool too.
-- A former PL researcher making AI way more useful via vanilla PL techniques