Taxacom: 'Artifical Intelligence'

[John Grehan]

Just an idle note here with nothing better to do. Recently I was confronted
with some rather unusual ghost moth genitalia that I could not recognize.
And I was not alone in that. I initially received a slide mount photo which
really had me puzzled. Then I was sent a non-mounted dissection and after
viewing it for about an hour it finally dawned on me that I had seen
something like it before. After more reflection the light bulb went on and
I found diagrammatic illustrations from 1988 that allowed me to place the
specimen into a genus (and also recognize it as a new species).

I suppose there is already software in existence that could have done this
in a few minutes by comparing and matching images of described species, but
presumably also this would cost money that makes this resource out of my
reach.

Then I also started reflecting on AI and its future impact after hearing
how there are already online resources where students can get papers
written for them on just about any subject. Apparently it's still a bit
rough as the algorithms can only match words, not their context. But I
suppose the day will come when lazy bums will be able to generate taxonomic
papers and review papers without raising a finger. Glad not to be around
then. Pity the editors and peer reviewers (or will AI also function as peer
reviewer? - after all, someone already tried to get a computer to qualify
as a lawyer).

On that cheerful note, Cheers.

John Grehan

-- 
https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhepialidsoftheworld.com.au%2F&data=05%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C8d5bc8d7f8704fbafe9b08db0f07bce7%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638120298132270812%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=4LL%2BRf14lzrGu7eW%2FnItgPmyrZKq04pKuNdrwwRmhgA%3D&reserved=0 (use the 'visit archived web site'
link, then the 'Ghost Moth Research page' link.