AI, DNA, morphology. Biodiversity is vast, and diverse. Figuring out the clusters within it (there a huge range of concepts of what a species [== clusters] is), and figuring out how that cluster can be meaningfully applied to issues that affect humans takes time, a lot of time. We commonly say in our research group that all of these are just another tool, we should embrace them all, but we can't escape the time it takes to work with the data at all levels. All the sequencing, AI, and even plain-old pictures in the world doesn't matter if you don't know how to catch the beast. And there are millions and millions of things to look at, all over the world. Again, in working with data at this scope on a day-today basis, not even big data, just broad, I'm struck with how little we can relate to this vastness, and I've been trained for decades to work with it.

We have videos from last years conference that highlight the tech that tries to rapidly barcode species, that can give you a flavour of the complexity involved. This is perhaps the world's leading taxonomists exploring how, practically, to do such: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX_1wdmROhU.