Just an anecdote about how birdwatching is also changing.

My 78-year-old father picked up birdwatching as a hobby this year. He has been a professional photographer for decades, but not a birder.

He takes really good photographs of birds, but then outsources the whole identification part to Claude. And Claude is a pretty good partner in the hobby, telling him what the identifying marks are and whether he needs a better picture next time.

Working with Claude didn't atrophy his spotting skills, it was more like having a good experienced partner. When I went on a birding trip with him and a goshawk flew by, he already knew what Claude had told him earlier about the identifying marks, and that's what he tried to capture better this time.

So maybe using AI to outsource some of the work doesn't take away all the brain rewiring part of birdwatching. At least not for him.