I’ve been thinking…
…about AI
I know, we keep hearing about AI (Artificial Intelligence) in nearly every aspect of our lives. It seems to have appeared everywhere; on our phones, our computers, our tablets! Even in our genealogy.
Every large genealogy site uses AI in some way or another, and they keep adding more AI features. Why? Well, AI can be amazing in helping us discover more and more about our ancestors and our ancestry. So, it is likely we’re using AI every time we research online.
What if we want to purposefully use AI to supplement our research? There are several chatbots available to us, most are free for at least most of their features. Among them are Claude, ChatGPT, and Copilot. Many, many genealogists have had great success using AI to further their research; even to find answers to ‘brick wall’ scenarios.
It may be hard to know how to get started. Thinking of AI as an ‘assistant’ can be helpful. There are many recommendations on how to form prompts. So much depends on what we want to know. I’ve located a few resources online that I hope will be useful. I also hope you’ll take the time to try them. Whether we like it, or not, AI is here to stay. We may as well reap some benefits!
AI Genealogy Insights (Steve Little, check out the ‘Prompts’ tab)
5 Best AI Genealogy Research Prompts for Beginners (Thomas MacEntee, Cheat Sheet)
AI Developments in Genealogy (FamilySearch; introduction to AI)
No responses yet