This seems to be the “in” thing, at the moment. Some have embraced it, whilst others think it borders on evil. No matter where you sit with AI, it is here, whether we like it or not. Interestingly some people say, “I will never use AI”. Really? Why say this if you have a mobile phone? You are using AI. On computers, think about when you do a ”search”. You are using AI. The results, nearly every person who has access to a phone or a computer, uses AI. There are many other examples, I’m sure.
Why AI.
With family history there is an avenue to use AI. I would say that using AI does not currently do your research.
Some would argue otherwise. The best way to answer is, to try it for yourself. Please note, I have not tried this example to see what happens. John Smyth, born in 1857 within Lincolnshire, England. What happens? It’s just a thought. A simpler approach is to do a search on your own name, that’s if you’ve not done this before.
YouTube Channel.
Here I refer to our YouTube channel which resurfaced last month after disappearing for a length of time. To date, the channel began on Wednesday 14th January with introductions of our presenters, assistants and helpers. If you haven’t seen it, please check it out. As you may be aware, on Monday 26 January there was a celebration for our third birthday of this blog on the channel.
I mentioned the channel as the characters displayed have all been generated by AI. The words they speak have been written by a human and lip synced to the characters. I know it’s not perfect just like most things when they start out! The next instalment starts an Australian way to commence family history research from the beginning. This occurs on Wednesday 9 February. It is a demonstration on how to start and NOT having AI do the research.
Moving on with AI.
One thing I wish to mention, all content written here has NOT, I repeat NOT, been written by AI. It is one thing that will never occur on this blog. There is a huge process that happens here to get the content published. I’ll not repeat it again, as I have mentioned this previously.
AI Characters.
The difference with the YouTube channel is the characters will do the onscreen bits – as mentioned they are AI generated. These characters appear to the right. The content they show and explain is all created by me, Well, Rod in particular. The suggested ideas are produced via our AI assistant Claude. All of what you see here is real. Searching Australian records and any screenshots are from Australian sources. (Please note: This has become challenging as where I have been using AI to generate the voices has changed… but moving forward: The show goes on.)
Where to Now.
I felt this needed to be discussed. Family history is a passion. I believe it takes time and effort to do all the research. AI takes over in the outline environment.
One just needs to look at the hints and suggestions provided by, in or on the online space. As I’ve mentioned before it’s okay to get this additional information but one needs to check EVERY record and prove that it is more than a hint/suggestion. When you tick all the validation boxes, only then should the record be added to your tree and never before.
The Past and Now.
My own research began in 1977. No computer, no online records – You had to do actual research yourself. I’ve mentioned previously, how I travelled to the UK and visited County Record Offices, graveyards and churches.
I even wrote letters to newspapers via “Dear Editor”, to search out information about my ancestors. I would think the writing a letter today is now classed as very outdated. Today, it’s email but who do you send it to? A large number of newspaper outlets have been closed down, in the name of progress. Of course, you can go onto social media but it’s not the same.
Social media, sadly, is full of fakes who seem to be out to grab your details and bombard you with spam and even scams.
Get Up and Go.
Final bit on AI. It may be a useful tool, but that is all it is. As technology advances, we do need to stay informed. We all do need to realise, that at times, we need to get up and go to a library or a church or even a graveyard and most importantly see and speak with humans rather than sit at and stare into an illuminated screen. It will never ask you, “Are you ok?”
Explore and Discover.
See you on 20 February.
Acknowledgements:
Pictures in this blog have been generated by AI to reflect the content in the text.
ComfyUI, Canva and OpenArt ai have all played a part in bringing colour to this writing.
Ancestor Family 
In the above content, there is a mention of AncestorFamily YouTube channel. For those interested, this is the link to the channel: https://youtu.be/_A3jEy1IVJk?si=cHCuXGwqLcJB2u7u
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