The Family History AI Show

This episode is sponsored by the Family History AI Show Academy

Beginning October 27, 2026, Mark and Steve are teaching Advanced Family History AI, the Level II course in their Family History AI series. The course is designed for genealogists with several months of experience using artificial intelligence tools who are ready to move beyond basic prompting to new tools and powerful techniques for researching and telling their family's story.

Register for Mark and Steve's classes at:

https://tixoom.app/fhaishow

Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little report from the East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference in Boston, where genetic genealogists were adopting artificial intelligence far faster than expected. They then look at Ancestry's AI Stories, which turn a single record into a narrated story about an ancestor, and why the record itself should remain the evidence.

The hosts explain why new models solving century-old math problems matter to family historians, as experienced genealogists begin bringing their hardest research problems to these tools, and what the planned retirement of custom GPTs means for researchers who rely on them for their saved prompts.

In the Tip of the Week, Mark sets up a scheduled agent that checks Ancestry, MyHeritage, Findmypast, Library and Archives Canada, and other repositories each week for newly released records in the places he researches, and compares how Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini handle the job.

In RapidFire, the hosts cover Claude's memory controls, which can keep one family's research from bleeding into another's, Apple's Gemini-powered Siri, and the calls to slow artificial intelligence development, ending with a reminder that genealogists can already do far more with today's tools than most realize.

00:06 Family History AI Show Academy: Advanced Family History AI Course

01:35 Trends from the East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference: Adoption Goes Mainstream

05:46 Today's Headlines: A Preview of the Episode

07:18 New Features at Ancestry: Document Transcription and AI Stories

11:18 Artificial Intelligence Model News: Claude Fable 5.1, GPT-6 Astra, and Navier-Stokes

20:34 Another Round of Simplification: Claude Merges Chat and Cowork, Custom GPTs Retire

30:05 Scheduling Your Artificial Intelligence Agent: Weekly Checks for New Record Collections

42:56 Claude Memory: Editable, Project-Aware, and Worth Checking

49:50 Apple's Smarter Siri (Again): Google Gemini Under the Hood

54:03 Calls to Slow Down Artificial Intelligence: Separating Real Risks from Headlines

1:16:53 Episode Wrap

Family History AI Show Academy

Advanced Family History AI Course Registration

https://tixoom.app/fhaishow

Trends from the East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference

East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference

https://ecggc.org/

New Features at Ancestry

Ancestry Brings Family History to Life with New AI-Powered Stories

https://www.ancestry.com/c/ancestry-blog/ancestry-news/ancestry-brings-family-history-to-life-with-new-ai-powered-stori

Build Deeper Connections with Ancestry's Redesigned Record Page

https://www.ancestry.com/c/ancestry-blog/ancestry-news/redesigned-record-page-fosters-easier-discoveries

The Science Behind Full-Text Search on Ancestry

https://www.ancestry.com/c/ancestry-blog/ancestry-news/ancestry-uses-science-and-ai-resources-to-transcribe-historical-documents/

Artificial Intelligence Model News

Introducing Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Mythos 5.1

https://www.anthropic.com/claude-fable-and-mythos-5-1

GPT-6 Astra: A New Generation of Intelligence

https://openai.com/index/gpt-6-astra/

OpenAI on the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize Problem

https://openai.com/index/navier-stokes-solution/

Another Round of Simplification

Claude Cowork and Chat Are Now One Claude

https://claude.com/blog/cowork-is-now-claude

Custom GPT Retirement and Migration FAQ: Retirement Planned for December 11, 2026

https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001519-custom-gpt-retirement-and-migration-faq

Scheduling Your Artificial Intelligence Agent

Schedule Recurring Tasks in Claude Cowork

https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13854387-schedule-recurring-tasks-in-claude-cowork

Scheduled Tasks in ChatGPT

https://help.openai.com/en/articles/10291617-scheduled-tasks-in-chatgpt

Create and Manage Schedules for Tasks in Gemini Spark

https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/17094710

Claude Memory

Use Claude's Chat Search and Memory to Build on Previous Context

https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11817273-use-claude-s-chat-search-and-memory-to-build-on-previous-context

Apple's Smarter Siri

Siri AI, a Profoundly More Capable and Personal Assistant, Is Here

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/09/siri-ai-a-profoundly-more-capable-and-personal-assistant-is-here/

Calls to Slow Down Artificial Intelligence

Dario Amodei: We Must Pace the Frontier

https://darioamodei.com/post/we-must-pace-the-frontier

Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, Family History, Anthropic, OpenAI, Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Ancestry, AI Stories, Scheduled Agents, Custom GPTs, Claude Cowork, AI Memory, Apple Intelligence, Siri, Navier-Stokes, AI Safety, Record Collections, Genetic Genealogy

Description

Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little return from institute season to unpack a summer that reshaped the artificial intelligence landscape, beginning with the new model families from OpenAI and Anthropic and how to choose among them.

The hosts then examine desktop artificial intelligence applications, which read and write files directly in a folder on your own computer, followed by Mark’s Tip of the Week on connecting ChatGPT Desktop to Excel to update one of his complex spreadsheets.

In RapidFire, the hosts cover the hacking spree that both OpenAI and Anthropic disclosed this summer, models solving mathematical problems that stumped researchers for decades, and handwritten text recognition finally crossing the line into everyday usefulness.

The through line in today’s episode is the shrinking list of things artificial intelligence cannot do, and what that might mean for genealogy.

This episode is sponsored by the East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference

The East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference is one of the best places in the world for advanced genetic genealogists to learn how the newest advances in genetic genealogy can improve their family history research. Mark and Steve are both presenting, and the conference begins August 21, 2026, in Boston. In person and online options are both available.

https://ecggc.org/

00:16 East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference in Boston

03:40 Summer Model Releases: Choosing Between Fast, Cheap, and Good

07:54 The Rise of the Desktop Apps: Artificial Intelligence That Reads Your Local Files

16:20 Connecting ChatGPT Desktop to Excel: Rebuilding a Complex Spreadsheet

25:58 Artificial Intelligence Breaks Out: OpenAI and Anthropic Disclose Sandbox Escapes

31:24 Century-Old Math Problems Solved: Why Verifiable Fields Fall First

38:03 Handwritten Text Recognition: Transcription Is No Longer the Hard Part

46:10 Episode Wrap and Boston Send-Off

East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference

https://ecggc.org/

Summer Model Releases

United States Government Grounds Anthropic

https://www.anthropic.com/news/fable-mythos-access

Sol Cheated on Itself

https://deploymentsafety.openai.com/gpt-5-6

The Rise of the Desktop Apps

Download ChatGPT for Desktop

https://chatgpt.com/download/

Install Claude Desktop

https://support.claude.com/en/articles/10065433-install-claude-desktop

Download Google Antigravity

https://antigravity.google/

Artificial Intelligence Solves Century-Old Math Problems

Ten Math Claims, Public Receipts from OpenAI

https://openai.com/index/ten-advances-in-mathematics/

Anthropic Cracked an 87-Year Math Problem

https://fortune.com/2026/07/21/ai-solves-jacobian-conjecture-levant-alpoge-claude-fable-5/

Handwritten Text Recognition

Dan Maloney’s Artificial Intelligence Handwriting Transcription Rankings

https://www.genea.ca/rankings/

Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, Family History, OpenAI, Anthropic, ChatGPT Desktop, Claude Desktop, Google Antigravity, Desktop Applications, Excel, Spreadsheet Automation, Handwriting Recognition, Document Transcription, Gemini, Model Selection, Sandbox Escape, Mathematics, Genetic Genealogy, Dan Maloney, AI Tools

Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little open with a deep look at MyHeritage's new Scribe AI, a new AI tool that analyzes records, photographs, gravestones, and coats of arms and provides genealogy relevant research suggestions. It even works on your own photographs.

This episode features an interview with Dave Vance, General Manager of Family Tree DNA, exploring how the hottest new genetic genealogy tests, provided by next-generation sequencing, deliver 400 times more genomic info than traditional microarray chips and what that means for matching, triangulation, and the future role of AI in genetic genealogy.

In RapidFire, the hosts cover Fold3's AI-powered full-text search for Revolutionary War pension files, Claude for Excel as a practical AI plug-in for Microsoft's spreadsheet, and Wikipedia's decision to ban AI-generated article content.

00:05 GRIP 2026 Course Announcements

05:03 MyHeritage Scribe AI: Record and Photo Analysis for Genealogists

14:58 Dave Vance, Family Tree DNA: Next-Generation Sequencing and AI in Genetic Genealogy

45:54 Fold3 Full-Text Search: Revolutionary War Pension Files Now Searchable

53:46 Claude for Excel: AI-Powered Spreadsheet Analysis Plug-in

1:00:47 Wikipedia's AI Policy: Editors Vote to Ban AI-Generated Content

1:08:19 Episode Wrap and Next Interview Preview

GRIP Genealogy Institute 2026 Courses

GRIP Genealogy Institute https://grip.ngsgenealogy.org/

MyHeritage Scribe AI

Introducing Scribe AI https://blog.myheritage.com/2026/03/introducing-scribe-ai/

Fold3 Full-Text Search

Revolutionary War Pension Files: Now Available Through Full-Text Search https://blog.fold3.com/revolutionary-war-pension-files-now-available-through-full-text-search/

Claude for Excel

Use Claude for Excel https://support.claude.com/en/articles/12650343-use-claude-for-excel

Wikipedia AI Policy

Wikipedia Cracks Down on the Use of AI in Article Writing https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/26/wikipedia-cracks-down-on-the-use-of-ai-in-article-writing/

Wikipedia: Artificial Intelligence Policy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Artificial_intelligence

Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, Family History, MyHeritage, Scribe AI, Family Tree DNA, Dave Vance, Next-Generation Sequencing, Genetic Genealogy, Fold3, Handwriting Recognition, Full-Text Search, Claude for Excel, Wikipedia, AI Policy, Record Analysis, Photo Analysis, Revolutionary War, RootsTech, AI Tools

Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little examine the major AI model upgrades released over the winter, comparing Anthropic's Opus 4.6, OpenAI's GPT 5.4, and Google's Gemini 3.1 Pro and their benefits for genealogists.

In a special interview recorded at RootsTech 2026, they sit down with Diana Elder and Nicole Dyer of Family Locket to explore how the Research Like a Pro methodology integrates with AI tools for transcription, locality research, and DNA analysis.

In RapidFire, they cover FamilySearch's new Simple Search interface for Full-Text Search, Ancestry's AI Stories feature for understanding historical records, and the escalating conflict between Anthropic and the U.S. federal government over the use of AI by the military.

In the News:

03:12 New AI Model Releases: Opus 4.6, GPT 5.4, and Gemini 3.1 Pro Transform Genealogy

Interview

19:40 Interview with Diana Elder and Nicole Dyer: Research Like a Pro Meets AI

RapidFire:

44:05 FamilySearch Simple Search: Natural Language Meets Full-Text Search

48:24 Ancestry AI Stories: Understanding Historical Records with AI

53:00 Anthropic vs. U.S. Government: AI Ethics Battle Elevates Claude

New Models

Introducing GPT5.4

https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-5-4/

Anthropic releases Opus 4.6

https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/05/anthropic-releases-opus-4-6-with-new-agent-teams/

Anthropic releases Claude Sonnet 4.6

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/17/anthropic-ai-claude-sonnet-4-6-default-free-pro.html

Gemini 3.1 Pro

https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/gemini-3-1-pro/

Interview with Diana Elder and Nicole Dyer from Family Locket

About Diana Elder and Nicole Elder Dyer

https://familylocket.com/about-us/

Simple Search for Family Search Full Text Search

How do I use Fulltext Search?

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-use-fulltext-search

Ancestry AI Stories

Ancestry Brings Family History to Life with New AI-Powered Stories

https://www.ancestry.ca/corporate/blog/ancestry-brings-family-history-to-life-with-new-ai-powered-stori

Anthropic and the U.S. Government

Trump orders government to stop using Anthropic in battle over AI use

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn48jj3y8ezo

Anthropic CEO responds to Trump order, Pentagon clash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPTNHrq_4LU

Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, Family History, AI Models, RootsTech, FamilySearch, Ancestry, Claude, ChatGPT, Google Gemini

In the last episode of 2025, Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little present their predictions for how artificial intelligence will transform genealogy research in 2026. This special episode examines fourteen key trends shaping the future of family history AI.

Mark and Steve predict that AI tools will move from enthusiast circles into mainstream genealogy practice, with AI-enhanced apps like NotebookLM becoming more important than the underlying language models that people have focused on for the past three years.

They explore how handwritten text recognition will become more accurate and accessible, and that genealogy companies will cautiously integrate new AI features, first focusing on helping us with our research.

02:33 Family History AI Goes Mainstream: From Enthusiasts to Everyday Users

04:13 Apps Over Models: Why Platform Features Matter More Than LLMs

06:17 Reusable Prompting Tools: GPTs, Projects, and Gems Boost Efficiency

08:02 AI-Enhanced Research Gains Acceptance Among Serious Genealogists

09:53 Handwritten Text Recognition Gets Better, Easier, and Cheaper

12:18 Genealogy Companies Take Cautious Approach to Generative AI

17:07 AI-Enhanced Browsers Become Standard, Agentic Features Raise Concerns

24:25 Voice Interfaces to AI Remain Niche in 2026

27:36 LLM Vendors Push File and Email Integration for Stickiness

31:46 Productivity Tools Embed LLMs Everywhere

35:56 The AI Horse Race: Three Leaders Emerge

41:15 AI Licensing Deals Change Internet Access Patterns

44:34 The AI Bubble Conversation is important to society, but less so to Genealogists

The Family History AI Show Academy

https://tixoom.app/fhaishow

Family History AI Goes Mainstream

What Can AI Do for Your Genealogical Research? – James Tanner (Nov 2025) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXmVKy1pUPE

FamilySearch Shares Plans for 2025 (Includes AI integration details) https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/familysearch-shares-plans-for-2025

Reusable Prompting Tools

Custom GPTs vs. Gemini Gems: Who Wins? - Learn Prompting (Aug 2025) https://learnprompting.org/blog/custom-gpts-vs-gemini-gems

AI-Enhanced Research

Unlocking Family Histories: How AI Is Breathing New Life into Handwritten Records (South Central APG)

https://southcentralapg.org/2025/08/16/unlocking-family-histories-how-ai-is-breathing-new-life-into-handwritten-records/

Handwritten Text Recognition

A new Google model is nearly perfect on automated handwriting recognition - Hacker News https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45887262

Cautious AI from Genealogy Companies

AI-Enhanced Browsers

Compliance alert: Do not use AI browsers

https://vinciworks.com/blog/compliance-alert-do-not-use-ai-browsers/

Content Integration with Chatbots

Gemini vs Copilot: A Quick Comparison Guide (2025) - Tactiq

https://tactiq.io/learn/gemini-vs-copilot

AI in Office Productivity Tools

Microsoft Copilot in 2025: What's Changed & What's Next | Aldridge

https://aldridge.com/microsoft-copilot-in-2025-whats-changed-whats-next/

Monthly Round Up: New Features in Microsoft 365 Copilot (Dec 2025)

https://dynamicscommunities.com/ug/copilot-ug/monthly-round-up-new-features-in-microsoft-365-copilot/

The AI Horse Race

The Best AI in October 2025? We Compared ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Gemini & Others - FelloAI

https://felloai.com/the-best-ai-in-october-2025-we-compared-chatgpt-claude-grok-gemini-others/

The 2025 AI Coding Models: Comprehensive Guide to the Top 5 Contenders - CodeGPT

https://www.codegpt.co/blog/ai-coding-models-2025-comprehensive-guide

AI Licensing Deals

Content Licensing Agreements Will Concentrate Markets Without Standardized Access - ProMarket

(Nov 2025) https://www.promarket.org/2025/11/20/content-licensing-agreements-will-concentrate-markets-without-standardized-access/

The False Hope of Content Licensing at Internet Scale - ProMarket

https://www.promarket.org/2025/11/19/the-false-hope-of-content-licensing-at-internet-scale/

The AI Bubble Conversation

The AI boom will turn to bust in 2026

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-ai-boom-will-turn-to-bust-next-year-says-this-forecaster-who-offers-his-trade-of-the-year-9c2a2332

OUTLOOK 2026 Promise and Pressure - J.P. Morgan (Discusses AI market stability vs bubble risks)

https://www.jpmorgan.com/content/dam/jpmorgan/documents/wealth-management/outlook-2026.pdf

Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, Family History, AI Predictions, NotebookLM, HTR, AI Browsers, ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude

Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little present a special year-end episode, comparing their 2025 AI predictions to what actually unfolded in 2025. This episode is a great review of the top AI advancements in 2025!

The hosts examine which predictions hit the mark, including the agentic AI hype cycle, plummeting AI costs driven by DeepSeek, and the dethroning of OpenAI as the top AI model. They also explore predictions that proved partially accurate, such as the shift to local language models and the adoption of AI in social media.

Mark and Steve have a good laugh over their biggest misses, including breakthroughs in text-in-image generation, image restoration, and vibe coding. They highlight how reasoning models were the transformative force behind nearly every major AI advancement in 2025.

The episode closes with a preview of next week's 2026 predictions episode.

03:30 Agents, Agents, Everywhere: Deep Research and Agentic Browsers

09:49 Cost of AI Drops Like a Rock: DeepSeek Disrupts the Market

12:26 OpenAI Dethroned: Gemini and Anthropic Rise

18:46 Local Language Models

23:54 AI Invades Social Media

28:24 AI-Enhanced Writing: From Grammar Checking to Ghost Writers

32:30 Family Tree Diagrams: Possible But Not Practical

36:03 Handwriting Recognition: Reasoning Improves Results

38:01 Reasoning Models: 2025’s Most Important Advancement

41:31 Text in Images: A Solved Problem

45:05 Image Restoration: Breakthroughs and Responsibilities

51:02 Vibe Coding: Speaking Software Into Being

Register for a Class with the Family History AI Show Academy

https://tixoom.app/fhaishow

Agentic AI

Agentic AI In-Depth Report 2025

https://hblabgroup.com/agentic-ai-in-depth-report/

Perplexity's New AI-First Browser Kicks Off Agentic Applications

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenwolfepereira/2025/07/11/perplexitys-new-ai-first-browser-is-kicking-off-agentic-applications/

Cost of AI

State of AI in 10 Charts

https://hai.stanford.edu/news/ai-index-2025-state-of-ai-in-10-charts

Free AI Tools 2025

https://thehumanprompts.com/free-ai-tools-2025-platforms/

OpenAI Dethroned

Geoffrey Hinton says Google is 'beginning to overtake' OpenAI

https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-godfather-geoffrey-hinton-google-overtaking-openai-2025-12

Local AI Hardware

Assessing the On-Device Artificial Intelligence (AI) Opportunity

https://www.qualcomm.com/content/dam/qcomm-martech/dm-assets/documents/assessing-the-on-device-ai-opportunity.pdf

Family Tree Diagrams

Explore how powerful AI image editing can support advanced creative workflows.

https://deepmind.google/models/gemini-image/pro/

Text in Images

Nano Banana Pro Review: Is Google's AI Image Generator Too Good?

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/google-nano-banana-pro-ai-image-generator-review/

Vibe Coding

No code, big dreams

https://www.businessinsider.com/non-technical-people-vibecoding-lessons-ai-apps-2025-9

Image Restoration

Responsible AI Photo Restoration

https://makingfamilyhistory.com/responsible-ai-photo-restoration/

Protecting Trust in Historical Images

https://craigen.org/protecting-trust-in-historical-images/

Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, Family History, AI Predictions, Reasoning Models, DeepSeek, Gemini, Image Restoration, Vibe Coding, Agentic AI

Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little examine Google's groundbreaking Gemini 3 release, which delivers state-of-the-art multimodal reasoning and sets a new benchmark for AI capabilities. They also explore ChatGPT's upgrade to version 5.1 with improved instruction following and better handling of longer conversation.

The hosts discuss Canva's new Creative Operating System, which now generates AI-powered designs directly within the platform.

This week's Tip of the Week demonstrates how Gemini 3 can use the context you provide it to greatly improve the accuracy of your hand written transcription.

In RapidFire, they cover NotebookLM's new deep research mode, Nano Banana's integration into Photoshop, Anthropic's privacy policy changes regarding training data, and how Claude's new usage monitoring feature can reduce your stress level.

In the News:

04:17 Google Gemini 3’s Multimodal AI Reaches New Heights

13:47 ChatGPT 5.1 upgrade is now better at following your Instructions

22:39 Canva Creative Operating System: AI-Powered Design Generation

Tip of the Week:

26:21 Adding Reasoning to Your Transcriptions Improves Accuracy

RapidFire:

36:40 NotebookLM Becomes a Fully Featured Research Tool

43:40 Nano Banana is Now Available in Photoshop

47:20 Anthropic Announces Claude Chats Will Be Used for Training Data

54:13 View Your Claude Usage in Settings

Intro to Family History AI by the Family History AI Show Academy

https://tixoom.app/fhaishow

Google Gemini 3

Introducing Gemini 3: A New Era of Intelligence

https://blog.google/products/gemini/gemini-3/

ChatGPT 5.1

A smarter, more conversational

https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-1/

GPT-5.1 New Features Explained

https://scalevise.com/resources/gpt-5-1-new-features/

Canva Creative Operating System

Introducing Canva's Creative Operating System

https://www.canva.com/newsroom/news/creative-operating-system/

NotebookLM Deep Research

NotebookLM adds Deep Research and support for more source types

https://blog.google/technology/google-labs/notebooklm-deep-research-file-types/

Nano Banana in Photoshop

Create with unlimited generations using Google Gemini 3 (Nano Banana Pro) in Adobe Firefly

https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2025/11/20/google-gemini-3-nano-banana-pro-firefly-photoshop

Anthropic Privacy Policy Update

Anthropic Will Use Claude Chats for Training Data: How to Opt Out

https://www.wired.com/story/anthropic-using-claude-chats-for-training-how-to-opt-out/

Updates to Consumer Terms and Privacy Policy

https://www.anthropic.com/news/updates-to-our-consumer-terms

Claude Usage Monitoring

Usage Limit Best Practices

https://support.claude.com/en/articles/9797557-usage-limit-best-practices

Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, Family History, Google Gemini, ChatGPT, Canva, NotebookLM, Nano Banana, Anthropic Claude, Photo Restoration

Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little discuss how new AI browsers are changing how genealogists research. They compare OpenAI's Atlas, Microsoft Edge, Google's Gemini, and Perplexity's Comet, explaining which features help family historians most.

The hosts share lessons from the early AOL era that can be applied to the AI era. They also explore Anthropic's new Haiku 4.5, a very fast model that works great for simple tasks like transcription and summarization.

Don’t miss this week's Tip of the Week, where Steve shows how AI can help you write better AI prompts. He uses an example for extracting information from draft cards to show how useful this approach can be.

In RapidFire, they cover new AI features in spreadsheets, major improvements in transcribing old handwriting, and how Microsoft Copilot's new agent store tries to help you with common tasks.

In the News:

01:20 Browser Wars Heat Up: OpenAI Atlas, Edge, and Gemini Compete

16:50 What AI Can Learn from AOL: Avoiding Walled Garden Mistakes

29:10 Anthropic's Haiku 4.5: When Smaller Models Beat Bigger Ones

Tip of the Week:

39:50 Using AI to Write Better Prompts for Historical Documents

RapidFire:

47:19 AI Makes Spreadsheets Easier: Google Sheets vs Excel

54:35 Reading Old Handwriting Gets Better: DeepSeek and Google Updates

01:05:15 Microsoft Copilot Adds Writing and Prompt Coaches

Genealogy and AI Facebook to hit 20k users!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/genealogyandai

An In-Depth Look at OpenAI's AI Browser

https://intuitionlabs.ai/articles/chatgpt-atlas-openai-browser

DeepSeek AI created DeepSeek-OCR

 https://www.infoq.com/news/2025/10/deepseek-ocr/

Nearly perfect on handwriting recognition

https://generativehistory.substack.com/p/has-google-quietly-solved-two-of

Global AI Browser Market Size

https://market.us/report/ai-browser-market/

Benchmarking Claude Haiku 4.5 and Sonnet 4.5 on 400 Real PRs

https://www.qodo.ai/blog/thinking-vs-thinking-benchmarking-claude-haiku-4-5-and-sonnet-4-5-on-400-real-prs/

Anthropic’s Claude Haiku 4.5 Brings Enterprise-Grade Speed and Savings to Customer-Facing AI

https://www.cxtoday.com/contact-center/anthropics-claude-haiku-4-5-brings-enterprise-grade-speed-and-savings-to-customer-facing-ai/

Top 10 AI Spreadsheet Tools

https://www.knack.com/blog/top-ai-spreadsheet-tools/

Prompt Coach: Prebuilt agent for Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat

https://rishonapowerplatform.com/2025/03/11/prompt-coach-prebuilt-agent-for-microsoft-365-copilot-chat/

Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, AI Browsers, OpenAI Atlas, Google Gemini, Microsoft Edge, Perplexity Comet, Anthropic Haiku, Meta-Prompting, Spreadsheet AI, OCR Technology, Handwritten Text, DeepSeek, Microsoft Copilot, AI Agents, Document Extraction, Family History, Browser Wars, AI Models

Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little explore how Google's Nano Banana photo restoration tool will revolutionize image restoration by integrating with Adobe Photoshop. This move will greatly reduce unintended changes to historical photos when editing them with AI.

Next, they unpack OpenAI’s move to make ChatGPT Projects available to free-tier users, making research organization more accessible for genealogists.

This week's Tip of the Week provides essential guidance on the responsible use AI when editing historical photos using AI tools like Nano Banana, ensuring transparency and trust in historical photographs.

In RapidFire, they cover OpenAI's new Sora 2 AI-video social media platform, Claude's new ability to create and edit Microsoft Office files, memory features in Claude Projects, advancements in local language models, and how OpenAI's massive infrastructure deals are changing the AI landscape.

In the News:

02:43 Adobe improves historical photo restoration by adding Nano Banana to Photoshop

09:34 ChatGPT Projects are Now Free

Tip of the Week:

13:36 Citations for AI-Restored Images Build Trust in AI-Modified Photos

RapidFire:

21:24 Sora 2 Goes Social

27:23 Claude Adds Microsoft Office Creation and Editing

34:26 Memory Features Come to Claude Projects

38:32 Apple and Amazon both create Local Language Model tools

44:47 OpenAI's Big Data Centre Deal with Oracle

OpenAI announces free access to ChatGPT Projects

https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6825453-chatgpt-release-notes

Engadget: OpenAI Rolls Out ChatGPT Projects to Free Users

https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-rolls-out-chatgpt-projects-to-free-users-215027802.html

Forbes: OpenAI Makes ChatGPT Projects Free

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2025/09/14/small-business-technology-roundup-microsoft-copilot-does-not-improve-productivity-and-openai-makes-chatgpt-project-free/

Responsible AI Photo Restoration

https://makingfamilyhistory.com/responsible-ai-photo-restoration/

Claude now has memory, but only for certain users

https://mashable.com/article/anthropic-claude-ai-now-has-memory-for-some-users

New Apple Intelligence features are available today

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/09/new-apple-intelligence-features-are-available-today/

Introducing Amazon Lens Live

https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/search-image-amazon-lens-live-shopping-rufus

Amazon Lens Live Can Scan and Pull Up Matches

https://www.pcmag.com/news/spot-an-item-you-wish-to-buy-amazon-lens-live-can-scan-and-pull-up-matches

A Joint Statement from OpenAI and Microsoft About Their Changing Partnership

https://openai.com/index/joint-statement-from-openai-and-microsoft/

The Verge: OpenAI and Oracle Pen $300 Billion Compute Deal

https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/776170/oracle-openai-300-billion-contract-project-stargate

Reuters: OpenAI and Oracle Sign $300 Billion Computing Deal

https://www.reuters.com/technology/openai-oracle-sign-300-billion-computing-deal-wsj-reports-2025-09-10/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, Family History, Photo Restoration, AI Tools, OpenAI, Google, Adobe Photoshop, ChatGPT Projects, Nano Banana, Image Editing, AI Citations, Sora 2, Video Generation, Claude, Microsoft Office, Apple Intelligence, Amazon Lens, Oracle, Cloud Computing, Local Language Models, AI Infrastructure, Responsible AI, Historical Photos

Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little review the biggest AI breakthroughs of 2025 so far, from DeepSeek's open-source revolution to GPT-5's unified reasoning model.

Mark and Steve also celebrate FamilySearch's Full-Text Search moving from experimental labs to the main website, covering 1.4 billion records across 4,300 collections plus new summarization and filtering features.

This week's Tip of the Week provides practical guidance on using Nano Banana for photo restoration, explaining when it works brilliantly and when to exercise caution with damaged images.

In RapidFire, they examine competing reports on AI's environmental impact, explore Google's new AI Mode in mobile apps, and discuss the landmark antitrust ruling that forces Google to share search data with competitors.

In the News:

03:44 2025 Mid-Year Review: AI's Explosive Growth in Genealogy

29:08 FamilySearch Full Text Search Is Now Live

37:57 AI Success Stories in the Wild: Real Genealogists, Real Results

Tip of the Week:

47:53 Best Uses for Nano Banana (Gemini Nano): Small Model, Big Impact

RapidFire:

59:54 AI's Environmental Debate: Energy Costs vs. Benefits

1:03:50 Google AI in Mobile Apps: What It Means for Genealogists

1:11:07 Google Antitrust Ruling Issued: Impact on AI Development

Intro to Family History AI by the Family History AI Show Academy

https://tixoom.app/fhaishow

Full-Text Search (must be logged in to use this link)

https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/full-text/

Full-Text Search Leaves FamilySearch Labs

https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/full-text-search-leaves-familysearch-labs

How do I use FullText Search?

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-use-fulltext-search

Responsible AI Photo Restoration

https://makingfamilyhistory.com/responsible-ai-photo-restoration/

WaPo AI Energy Usage, Sept 2024

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/09/18/energy-ai-use-electricity-water-data-centers/

Google: How much energy does Google's AI use? We did the math

https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/infrastructure/measuring-the-environmental-impact-of-ai-inference/

Judge orders Google to share search data as part of antitrust ruling --- but Google gets to keep Chrome

https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/search-engines/judge-orders-google-to-share-search-data-as-part-of-antitrust-ruling-but-google-gets-to-keep-chrome?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, Family History, DeepSeek R1, AI Reasoning, Open Source AI, Free AI Tools, ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, OpenAI Operator, AI Agents, Beginner AI Guide, Research Tools, Document Analysis, AI Democratization, Context Windows, Deep Research, AI Writing, Browser Automation, Genealogy Research, AI Accessibility, Reasoning Models, AI Education