Introduction
The advent of generative AI has been considered a threat to education, especially on the university level. However, as a recent article from the University of San Diego pointed out, AI technologies are revolutionizing the academic landscape and offering unprecedented opportunities. See 39 Examples of Artificial Intelligence in Education.
Objective
This post addresses the need for members of the genealogy community to educate themselves about the opportunities and risks created by AI.
Preparation
The image used in this post was generated by Adobe Firefly.
Implementation
Genealogy is a pursuit that requires constant education. Personally, my experience extends from the purely paper/microfilm stage of genealogical research to the integration of AI into my daily life, including nearly everything I write or research. This process is fraught with both opportunities and risks. AI can generate false, biased or incorrect content. The risk of AI is that this unreliable, worthless content will be included in online family trees without acknowledgement as to its source and unreliability.
Unless members of the greater genealogical community are educated as to the proper use of AI and the need to verify content, the unreliable and false information generated by AI will make factually unsupported online family trees more unreliable than they presently are. Members of the genealogical community should make significant effort to educate themselves and those genealogists around them about the benefits of using AI and its inherent risks.
Review and Verify
One of the major challenges of AI-produced content for genealogy is that it is often difficult to determine its reliability. Regardless of whether the content is an image or text, and whether it includes a citation or not, the cited authority may not exist. In either case, the individual using such content may not realize that the image is inappropriate and the cited authority is false. The need to verify all sources has always been a basic tenant of genealogical research. The challenge today is that the entire genealogical community must acknowledge the risks of AI and begin the needed process of education. We can’t rely on AI to monitor its own activities.
Ethical Considerations
The danger arising from the uneducated reliance on AI is that so much inaccurate material will be generated that determining the accuracy of any entry about individuals may become too difficult to overcome. For example, if I see an entry posted to an online family tree that is supported by a list of sources, will I spend the time to verify each one? The answer is that failure to verify every source will result in the constant and accelerated destruction of historical integrity.
Benefits and Limitations
The reality of this issue was highlighted by an experience in which I asked for some historical information from ChatGPT. The response was reasonable and extensive. I also asked for sources supporting the information and was given a list of sources with the correct citation form. Upon examination, it was apparent that the sources were nonexistent. So despite the apparent usefulness of the information provided, it was necessary to search for accurate sources for every assertion.
Takeaway Tips
Genealogists should realize that the rise of AI requires significant effort to educate oneself and a commitment to maintaining high standards of historical accuracy.