I agree with all you say Lynda. I sometimes use AI when writing, to give me ideas for further information. I rarely use the actually wording they give me but I love the way it sends me off looking for something that I could add to the story. It's also a good idea to look at any source given. A couple of times, I've found that the source hasn't related to the article.
OMG... what fun, and congratulations for your work on ice-dyeing. That's very cool. I'll confess to shamelessly using Grammarly to clean up after me with commas and spelling errors. I've used AI for actual writing, but more as a partner to rephrase things for me when I'm stuck in a spiral of cliches. I'll have to have that conversation with Gemini. 😉
The way I work with AI for my genealogy efforts is to treat it like a college writing professor. I write something and I ask AI (generally I use Gemini or ChatGPT) what is working and what needs improvement. I adjust my writing accordingly and then go back and share my updated content for ongoing feedback. Lately I've also used it to transcribe old hand-written letters and I've had some success. I would be quite cautious about using it as a research tool.
I conducted a not very scientific experiment by asking the same question of different AI platforms. Grok (X) seemed to be the most honest and complete, Microsoft Co-Pilot won the award for most censored (It actually admonished me for daring to even ask the question) and others were sort of all over the place with information. Grok also did a good job of creating imagery although Co-Pilot produced some nice art as well. Google Gemini damn near drove me off a cliff when combined with map navigation on my car. We are in early stages of development. The singularity is not very close.
Grok is the AI put out by Elon Musk as part of the services on Twitter (X). It is overall the easiest to use, most thorough and least biased. That said there are a number of others as well that I did not evaluate. I am finding new uses every day. Yesterday I couldn't think of a word so I just kind of described it to Grok and he not only gave me the term but several alternates as well.
I so agree with what you say and have done with AI. Good for you for tracking the truth. It’s a great too when used wisely, like, as you said, a second reader.
I think that writers can become more confident in using an AI squad of assistants to enhance what they write! Just like any creative tool an LLM has the ability to inspire, excite, encourage, and polish the work of its user! Now that I have learned how to make the best use of Chat GPT, Perplexity and Claude - each for their own specific skill, I weave them into my writing toolkit on a daily basis.
Carole, Thanks for your comment. The response to the history of ice dyeing on Perplexity Denise told me about was amazing. I may need to use it more often. I've not heard of Claude. I'll check it out. Thanks.
Perplexity.ai is a search engine which summarizes with citations. It told me you are the inventor! Good news! I can’t seem to attach a screenshot but if you go and ask it you should get the same result. It’s free with an option to subscribe (I’m using the free model and it works great).
So far I haven't been using AI actively in my research, but I'm very interested, and this article helps me see some of the common challenges in using AI. I wondered aloud to a very techy friend, "it seems as if it still can't match sox properly, and overlooks several sox entirely." :)
Yep! It's fun to just play with. When I was thinking about a title for my substack it gave me all kind of weird suggestions. I had always wanted a column called Heines Sight, so I deleted their ideas! But they are great for outlining an ideas, even suggesting titles for posts. I don't use them but they often give me ideas.
I wrote an article last year about using a particular AI LLM for genealogy research - I came to the same conclusion as you, that it just spits back out what you give it (which is how LLMs work!) after initially giving you limited/false answers. It could be a halfway decent assistant for collating or synthesizing information but I wish they'd revert the search algorithms back so they work again for finding sources.
Thank you for this info, Lynda. I haven't yet used AI short of just a brief look but I will try using it for further resources. This is a great idea. And I also like that you were able to use it to get the appropriate information started in the 'system.'
Cynthia, In my research everything I've found is that it's not intended to be a search engine. It's a doer, not a thinker. It's words not facts. But me adding my information to the system makes it like another wikipedia site where everyone writes what they want on it. It's fun to play with and can generate pictures.
I agree with all you say Lynda. I sometimes use AI when writing, to give me ideas for further information. I rarely use the actually wording they give me but I love the way it sends me off looking for something that I could add to the story. It's also a good idea to look at any source given. A couple of times, I've found that the source hasn't related to the article.
Jennifer, Yes! Thanks for the restack and commenting.
Ditto
OMG... what fun, and congratulations for your work on ice-dyeing. That's very cool. I'll confess to shamelessly using Grammarly to clean up after me with commas and spelling errors. I've used AI for actual writing, but more as a partner to rephrase things for me when I'm stuck in a spiral of cliches. I'll have to have that conversation with Gemini. 😉
Barbara, Thanks! Yes, Grammarly is great for cleaning up commas and stuff. As I said I just use it as a second reader or an assistant.
The way I work with AI for my genealogy efforts is to treat it like a college writing professor. I write something and I ask AI (generally I use Gemini or ChatGPT) what is working and what needs improvement. I adjust my writing accordingly and then go back and share my updated content for ongoing feedback. Lately I've also used it to transcribe old hand-written letters and I've had some success. I would be quite cautious about using it as a research tool.
That’s how I used it although I think about it as a writing friend or assistant, not a professor!! I agree it’s not ready for research.
I conducted a not very scientific experiment by asking the same question of different AI platforms. Grok (X) seemed to be the most honest and complete, Microsoft Co-Pilot won the award for most censored (It actually admonished me for daring to even ask the question) and others were sort of all over the place with information. Grok also did a good job of creating imagery although Co-Pilot produced some nice art as well. Google Gemini damn near drove me off a cliff when combined with map navigation on my car. We are in early stages of development. The singularity is not very close.
David, Interesting. I've not heard of Grok. Yep, it's the early stages for sure. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Grok is the AI put out by Elon Musk as part of the services on Twitter (X). It is overall the easiest to use, most thorough and least biased. That said there are a number of others as well that I did not evaluate. I am finding new uses every day. Yesterday I couldn't think of a word so I just kind of described it to Grok and he not only gave me the term but several alternates as well.
I so agree with what you say and have done with AI. Good for you for tracking the truth. It’s a great too when used wisely, like, as you said, a second reader.
Lesley, Thanks.
I think that writers can become more confident in using an AI squad of assistants to enhance what they write! Just like any creative tool an LLM has the ability to inspire, excite, encourage, and polish the work of its user! Now that I have learned how to make the best use of Chat GPT, Perplexity and Claude - each for their own specific skill, I weave them into my writing toolkit on a daily basis.
Carole, Thanks for your comment. The response to the history of ice dyeing on Perplexity Denise told me about was amazing. I may need to use it more often. I've not heard of Claude. I'll check it out. Thanks.
Perplexity.ai is a search engine which summarizes with citations. It told me you are the inventor! Good news! I can’t seem to attach a screenshot but if you go and ask it you should get the same result. It’s free with an option to subscribe (I’m using the free model and it works great).
Denise, Wow! That had several pics of my dyeing too!! Thanks!!
So far I haven't been using AI actively in my research, but I'm very interested, and this article helps me see some of the common challenges in using AI. I wondered aloud to a very techy friend, "it seems as if it still can't match sox properly, and overlooks several sox entirely." :)
Yep! It's fun to just play with. When I was thinking about a title for my substack it gave me all kind of weird suggestions. I had always wanted a column called Heines Sight, so I deleted their ideas! But they are great for outlining an ideas, even suggesting titles for posts. I don't use them but they often give me ideas.
I wrote an article last year about using a particular AI LLM for genealogy research - I came to the same conclusion as you, that it just spits back out what you give it (which is how LLMs work!) after initially giving you limited/false answers. It could be a halfway decent assistant for collating or synthesizing information but I wish they'd revert the search algorithms back so they work again for finding sources.
Thanks!
Thank you for this info, Lynda. I haven't yet used AI short of just a brief look but I will try using it for further resources. This is a great idea. And I also like that you were able to use it to get the appropriate information started in the 'system.'
Cynthia, In my research everything I've found is that it's not intended to be a search engine. It's a doer, not a thinker. It's words not facts. But me adding my information to the system makes it like another wikipedia site where everyone writes what they want on it. It's fun to play with and can generate pictures.
I think I'll wait for a few years and let AI catch up with a basic Google search before I use it.