Asking a model to critique or improve your prompts--called "meta-prompting"--is a strong and good use of these tools. And both OpenAI and Anthropic has tools to help you craft better prompts. console.anthropic.com/dashboard

I think this is my favorite use of ChatGPT so far. Get the guide here: www.theformidablegenealogist.com/product-page... #genealogy

Anyone can learn to use this. Get it here: www.theformidablegenealogist.com/product-page... #genealogy

The barrier between an idea and a compelling image has essentially disappeared.

Here's a prompt to add a spectral wire sculpture to an image, inspired by the context and contents of the image (link to full prompt in first comment).

Virginia’s Great Seal (1776)—devised by revolutionaries George Wythe and George Mason—shows the Roman goddess Virtus, spear grounded, sword poised, standing over a deposed, crown-fallen tyrant; its motto “Sic semper tyrannis” (“Thus always to tyrants”) proclaims unending resistance to oppression.

Ep.25 of Family History AI Show: GPT-4o’s photorealism & OpenAI’s o3 geolocation reasoning impress—accurate within blocks. Plus, Google Gemini Veo 3 hints at next-gen video/audio generation.

Some models are better with words than others. I was using OpenAI's o3 to help me understand some text, so I prompted a summary, and it responded: "ignorance is the seedbed of unintended harm"

You guys...? We did it. 🥰 We won the FULL NEW YORK STATE DEATH INDEX FOR 1880-2017! We beat the largest government agency in the state of New York (@nysdoh.bsky.social), in the highest court of the state, through a Freedom of Information Law (#FOIL) suit. www.reclaimtherecords.org/records-requ...

Ask Hard Questions! Drop your toughest AI-in-genealogy questions below. Ahead of Sunday’s NGS panel on Guiding AI Principles—Accuracy, Disclosure, Privacy, Education, Compliance—I’ll be on stage with Lynn Broderick and BCG president David Ouimette. What should we tackle? ⬇️

o3 make geolocation trivial. chatgpt.com/share/6825e9...

My improv on "Please" and "Thank you": the wink.😉

Tonight is the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere’s midnight ride. May his memory remind us all to resist the tyranny forming in our government.

#genchat More on ethics & #Genealogy

Meet Linka, an AI assistant introduced by Borland Genetics, who helps Kevin Borland code the site to help users. If you'd like to learn how beginners can create your own AI assistants, Andrew Redfern is teaching a free webinar on saved prompts. #genealogy Details on both in comments. 🔗⬇️

This is one not to be missed: learning to use, create, and share saved prompts is a valuable skill, the key to unlocking many other AI superpowers.

For I4GG AI Day, please enjoy my "AI Resources for Genealogists" infographic. Mark @makingfamilyhistory.com Thompson and I are excited to be collaborating with CeCe Moore and the Institute for Genetic Genealogy to present I4GG AI Day 2025 on Fri 28 Mar 2025, both in-person and virtually. #genealogy

Fun Prompt Friday! Prompt AI to sketch your genealogical roadmap: detailed locality guides full of the places, people, and resources shaping your family history. #genealogy #familyHistory #localityGuides Link below 🔗👇

Four major companies released AI research agents (Google, DeepSeek, Perplexity, xAI, OpenAI), but OpenAI's Deep Research stands apart in comprehensiveness, despite high costs ($20/mo: 10 queries, $200/mo: 120 queries). See for yourself! Link below 🔗👇

One of my most-used saved prompts is this copy-editing tool; it analyzes text for 10 common writing issues, suggests improvements, and puts you in control—handing you the red pen to decide which changes to keep. Link below 🔗 👇

Join APG on 2 March for a FREE webinar about the importance of the U.S. National Archives in our profession and how YOU can effectively engage with legislators to support archival access. Open to all; register at bit.ly/4hPJXRg. This presentation is underwritten by Civil War Records.

This classic advice is now two years old and still good; from Mollick's "Magic for English Majors" (2/23). #aigenealogy

Are you a journalist, genealogist or historian who has ever used records from the National Archives? It's time to step up and take some simple steps to preserve federal records. And save our nation's history. Please visit this website. And share widely. fundnara.com

Hey AI, how many people are asking, "Is Trump trying to break America?"?

"Prompting is a weird art." This characterization echoes and mirrors my experience.

Authoritarians always attack independent sources of knowledge--they want the ability to decide what is true and what is not true. Teachers, librarians, journalists, researchers are all being threatened and harassed, even Wikipedia: www.404media.co/email/38ceb1...

Be precise and exhaustive with reasoning model prompts, as if instructing an overly literal genie.

I ❤️ Archivists

This is not normal.

Celebrate Black History Month by tracing African American families through time with this FREE webinar "Beginning African American Research on Ancestry®" on Wednesday, February 5th.

OpenAI just released new AI models that "think before they speak." Unlike regular chatbots that respond instantly, these take extra time to plan their answers. They're best for complex tasks like planning and analysis, rather than quick back-and-forth conversation. Link below 🔗👇

"The release of safety reports often signals the upcoming availability of new AI models, suggesting o3's public release could be imminent."

These tools don't need to be perfect to be powerfully useful; don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Historian Prof. Ben Breen: "yes, these things [Al] can definitely "do" historical research and analysis now, and I am 100% certain that they will improve many aspects of the work historians do to understand the past, especially in the realms of transcription, translation & image analysis" Link 🔗 ⬇️

For #genealogy and family history researchers using AI: Latest AI guide shows GPT-4o top at versatile tasks, Claude 3.5 Sonnet best creative writing, Gemini for large contexts, Grok for X/Twitter data, Copilot for Windows workflows, and DeepSeek free yet capable Chinese model access. Link below 🔗 👇

I made a #genealogy tool in Canvas that calcs and shows cousin relationships: you pick your cousin degree and how “removed” you are. Adjust a slider, and React updates on-screen family tree. I just told ChatGPT in plain English what I wanted; you can see my prompts, chat, and demonstration in video:

This is a big deal. If you've seen the creative uses of Claude Artifacts that folks have discovered and shared, you know the robust forms of expression coming to ChatGPT. I expect we'll see more cool new discoveries with these tools now that they're available inside ChatGPT. x.com/OpenAI/statu...

"It's the hardest AI test ever — today, no model gets above 10% — but researchers expect 50% scores by the end of the year." - Kevin Roose

Know your data. Know your models. Know your limits.

Loathsome Jargon alert! Ever wondered how much your AI can actually 'remember'? 🧠 Meet the 'context window'—a.k.a. your AI’s short-term memory. Respect its limits, reduce errors, and boost #genealogy research reliability. Read how it works (w/ tips & examples) here: 🔗⬇️

Los Angeles County Has a Greater Population Than 42 U.S. States and Territories

🚀 Fun Prompt Friday is back! This week, we’re turning lists of facts into vivid narratives with a powerful generative prompt designed for genealogists, historians, and anyone bringing research to life. 🌟 (link 👇)

I'm grateful to have joined tonight's #genealogy and AI panel. Beyond the amazing demos, what struck me most was our consensus: these tools, while imperfect, are powerfully useful—and improving. Free to view for seven days--thanks Legacy! familytreewebinars.com/webinar/gene...

🪨 Cracking open jargon like rock ore! Starting my "Loathsome Jargon" series to demystify AI terms for genealogists. First up: "jagged frontier" - why some AI tasks work great while similar ones flop. Share your puzzling terms below! aigenealogyinsights.com/2025/01/07/l... #genealogy

Explore AI for genealogy! 🌟 Kick off the year with "Fun Prompt Friday" to boost your research skills. Master extracting structured data from text with expert tips and examples. Perfect for researchers, genealogists, and family historians! Start here: https://buff.ly/3BWGwZi #AIGenealogyDoOver

The 2025 AI Genealogy Do-Over is growing! 🎉 The Genealogy Do-Over Workbook is FREE through Fri 3 Jan: https://buff.ly/4iY47cF 📚 Amy Johnson Crow offers #52Ancestors52Weeks help: https://buff.ly/4iXBBIb 🗓️ Let’s do this! Share progress: #AIGenealogyDoOver 🕵️‍♂️ Details: https://buff.ly/4fFxpd1 🔍

Kicking off 2025 with an AI Genealogy Do-Over + 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks! Refocusing on genealogy while testing AI’s limits & benefits. Day 1: bought The Genealogy Do-Over Workbook, started a new database (just me so far!), and wrote this post. Updates weekly—let’s go! 🚀✨ https://buff.ly/4fFxpd1

In Episode 20, we discuss top AI family history tools worth paying for and those to avoid. We explore creativity as the positive flipside to AI "hallucinations" and cover news about OpenAI's reasoning model "o1," Siri's intelligence, and AIs with enhanced memory.

This would be a good week: Day 8: Voice Engine Day 9: GPT-4o update Day 10: GPT-4o image output Day 11: Agents Demo Day 12: GPT-4.5 x.com/AILeaksAndNe...

Here's a #genealogy tip: always get to the most original source you can. Even if it gives you no more information than the index entry, you will have at least confirmed it was indexed correctly. And often it *will* give you more!