To answer the question in the OP:
- Yes, we should be training the AI
- IMO, AI will not put taxonomists out of work
The discussion in the 17 posts above, reminded me of this taxonomy quote from entomologist Doug Yanega:
"Identifying bugs to species could probably qualify as the slowest biological science.
Case in point: We just got back a loan of 3 bugs that were borrowed in 1958 for a revision.
The original borrower is dead. The person who they went to from there is also dead. The next person who had them just retired.
The curators were unable to find anyone interested in carrying on the revision, so they sent them back to us — still unidentified.
59 years on loan, and no progress made at all.
While I admire the bookkeeping that allowed the specimens to find their way back to us, it’s still sort of sad, and far from unique."