I'm building a custom analytical framework in ChatGPT Plus (paid version, 5.2 as of December 2025) to help me understand Chinese Canadian records. Along the way, I've been blasted with one revelation after another. ChatGPT isn't like google. ChatGPT and other large language models are the T-Rex dinosaurs of computing: massively powerful but also with scary downsides. I want to use the big, powerful beast and I don't want to get eaten, and I think the slower we are to get on board, the harder it will be. I've learned in a short time how to set it up, what it does with private data, what keywords are important, how to create my first ChatGPT-generated prompts, and a few limits of the model. In the meantime, I am agog at what I've got so far, and this is only the beginning.
Tag: Artificial Intelligence (AI)
How to use AI to illustrate family history
I'd like to offer some philosophical thoughts on AI. I believe AI is as big a change to our world as the invention of the internet. Love it or hate it, it is already changing everything. I'm as nervous as the next person about the downsides (ex: deepfakes), but here's the thing: I'm not going to get less nervous by avoiding it. I believe it is incumbent on all of us, and especially genealogy professionals, to be upfront about how we are using AI in our work. If we're not sure if we are using AI, it's up to us to figure out how AI is a part of our workflow, and identify it as such.