Artificial Intelligence: Tool for Genealogical Research

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Courtesy https://picryl.com/amp/media/medelssohngenealogy-27a4b2

"AI for Genealogy" is a hot topic these days, but often it is discussed as if it's new. In fact, artificial intelligence (AI) has been used for all kinds of research for a long time. It all depends on how we "AI" define it. Remember, genealogy tree diagrams such as the above diagram were a revolution in how to think about and display family relationships.


New: Chatbots

Chatbot CourtesyVectorPortal.Com
What's new is the chatbots such as ChatGPT. A recent article at ZDnet says, "Whether unlocking your phone through face recognition or telling Alexa to play a song, artificial intelligence has filtered into our everyday lives. Now, you can harness the power of AI to do your writing, too. At your command, AI chatbots can write that paper you have been dreading to start, write code, compose emails, generate art or even write Excel formulas for you. 

"ChatGPT has made quite a splash, motivating competitors to make their own versions. As a result, there are a variety of capable AI chatbots to choose from that can accomplish different things, giving you more options to find one that meets your needs." 


"Old AI"

We know that genealogy research companies such as Ancestry.com, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and DNA testing and analysis companies such as 23andMe, Family Tree DNA, LivingDNA, Gedmatch, DNA Painter, DNA-Sci.com, Genetic Affairs, DNAGedcom.com, Genealogical DNA Analysis Tool  (GDAT), YourDNAFamily, Rootsfinder, Borland Genetics and Wikitree use algorithms to help us analyze our data and those of our matches to help us more fully explore DNA data as another record source. For more information and links to any of the sites in this list, see https://isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_DNA_tools and the rest of the ISOGG Wiki. 


New, Exciting, Fast-Moving

But what about ChatGPT, etc.? They are new and exciting, and their best use is evolving quickly, right along with their development. The NGS recently hosted a lecture by Steve Little which is now on YouTube: Empowering Genealogists with Artificial Intelligence 6 September 2023. Last week I heard the same lecture, updated - a few weeks later! See some of the new information here, on Little's website. Another valuable website is Blaine Bettinger and Daniel Loftus' Facebook group, Genealogy and Artificial Intelligence.

The technology is moving quickly, so the key is to try out the free stuff, see what you like, and keep learning. AI is a tool much like the other tools we use, all of which have strengths, weaknesses and even dangers. 


With great power comes great responsibility

Recall that once writing advanced beyond hash marks, the sages warned that writing would weaken human memory! That may be true, but writing and reading are two of the most powerful tools we use, right along with observation and listening.*

* Socrates on the Invention of Writing and the Relationship of Writing to Memory.


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