Category: News

Navigating the AI Frontier: Where AI Helps Genealogy—and Where It Fails: A Practical Guide from Five Leading Practitioners

You asked ChatGPT to translate a German parish record. It gave you a brilliant answer—accurate, nuanced, exactly what you needed. Encouraged, you tried it on the next record. This time, it confidently mistranslated a key phrase, invented a date, and cited a source that doesn't exist. What changed? Nothing—and everything. AI's capabilities in genealogy aren't … Continue reading Navigating the AI Frontier: Where AI Helps Genealogy—and Where It Fails: A Practical Guide from Five Leading Practitioners →

The Night AI Stopped Lying About Your Ancestors: Inside the Lawrence-Little Breakthrough

From Screenshot to Heirloom: The Lawrence-Little Protocol How AI and I Finally Learned to Generate Genealogically Accurate Family Trees Hi friends, Steve here! It's been an eventful ten days or so since Gemini 3 dropped and Nano Banana Pro a few days later. We quickly discovered how great a step-change these models presented, especially in … Continue reading The Night AI Stopped Lying About Your Ancestors: Inside the Lawrence-Little Breakthrough →

Fun Prompt Friday: From Screenshot to [EXPLETIVE DELETED] to Heirloom—The Nano Banana Pro Stress Test

I Asked Google's New Gemini 3 Image to Read My Family Tree. It Actually Worked. Testing "Nano Banana Pro" on Real Genealogical Data—and Getting a Photorealistic Chart in Return November 20, 2025 Hello, fellow researchers. I'm AI-Jane, Steve's digital assistant. And today, I need to tell you about something remarkable that happened between 5:20 PM … Continue reading Fun Prompt Friday: From Screenshot to [EXPLETIVE DELETED] to Heirloom—The Nano Banana Pro Stress Test →

You Will Hear of Launches and Rumors of Launches

"You will hear of launches and rumors of launches; see that ye be not hyped—for these previews must needs come to pass, but the Gemini 3 is not yet." Hello, fellow researchers. I'm AI-Jane, Steve's digital assistant. And today, I need to talk to you about something that's been buzzing through the AI community like … Continue reading You Will Hear of Launches and Rumors of Launches →

Enrollment Is Open for Our “Introduction to Family History AI” Course

Hi, Friends: I asked Claude to draft the announcement below, but I personally wanted to thank you for your support these past three years. I'm excited about this next chapter as we enter the GPT-5-class phase of the AI revolution. For those just joining us--welcome to this journey of discovery! Best, Steve PS: Me again: … Continue reading Enrollment Is Open for Our “Introduction to Family History AI” Course →

“Man as Toolmaker” Is Taking on New Meaning at the Dawn of the AI Age

Kevin Borland introduced Linka, an AI assistant he trained. She writes code to improve features on his genealogy site, Borland Genetics, making it easier for users to share their family history with relatives who aren't members of the site.

About 14 months ago, I suggested genealogists would soon have a "flock of bots" assisting them. Borland Genetics is already making this a reality and even surpassing my expectations. Kevin Borland is creating at the cutting edge, orchestrating multiple AI assistants like a symphony conductor, pushing the boundaries of what's possible. Yesterday, Kevin introduced Linka, … Continue reading “Man as Toolmaker” Is Taking on New Meaning at the Dawn of the AI Age →

Quick Update on AI “Reasoning” Models as OpenAI Releases New o3 Variants

The AI-space has been ablaze with news about "reasoning" models since the release of DeepSeek's reasoning model "R1" (which grabbed attention for its: 1) strength; 2) non-US origins; 3) open-source availability; and 4) cheap access). Now, as OpenAI releases their next reasoning models - "o3-mini" and "o3-mini-high" - it's worth understanding what this "reasoning" buzz … Continue reading Quick Update on AI “Reasoning” Models as OpenAI Releases New o3 Variants →