But how do they expect to sustain on that?

One natural step of AI usage, the way I see it, is that even mediocre researchers can use AI as a harness to become prolific researchers.

So if you're part of a pure "human only" researchers that publish 1/10th of what the rest are doing, how are you going to survive?

The more prolific researchers will eat your grants for lunch.

This is exactly the same thing a lot of software devs are going through now. AI models have lifted up EVERYONES ability to produce code, so there's simply no premium anymore for those that will only code by hand. And the people paying their salary are asking why they aren't more productive, when even business analyst Joe is pumping out new products left and right.