I hear a lot of angst about the role of statisticians (especially junior statisticians) with the rise of AI. Having worked as faculty for a good bit; run an MS program; and engaged with various companies, I had a few thoughts that I think are maybe useful for junior folks (though maybe speculative). I don't have answers (and obviously cannot predict the future), but I think there has historically been a myth that is worth explicitly clearing up. The myth has several versions: ----------------------- The role of a statistician is to compute statistics. OR The role of a statistician is to select statistical models, apply them to data, and interpret their outputs OR even The role of a statistician is to analyze data. ----------------------- The first is obviously a bit silly, but I think they all have the same issue: they are much too small in scope, and limit people individually, as well as limiting us as a field.…