I read

> The important question is, therefore, not whether AI will defeat mathematicians, but which mathematical ends we want AI to serve.

and had the opposite interpretation as I see you having. To me, it reads as the authors [1] acknowledging, as you put it, that

> AI will run and trample anything that stays in front of it.

and that mathematicians need to find out where they want to go:

> Rather, it is an opportunity to clarify what mathematics is all about. We should ask again what we are after when we do mathematics.

This surely does involve purpose death, but also purpose rebirth.

[1]: Silvia De Toffoli and Eamon Duede, instead of Terence Tao, although I imagine Terence endorses the message.