Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little share their predictions for artificial intelligence developments in 2025, with a special focus on how these changes will affect genealogists and family historians.
They explore the emergence of AI agents, the shift to running language models locally on personal devices, and the introduction of chatbots to social media platforms. Mark and Steve also discuss how AI writing tools will become mainstream, even as costs decrease and capabilities increase.
Their predictions include both opportunities and challenges, examining which tools may thrive and which may disappoint in the coming year. They conclude with "anti-predictions" – capabilities that, despite high hopes, probably won't materialize in 2025.
Timestamps:What We Can Look Forward to In 2025
01:02 AI Agents: The Next Big Thing
08:06 Local Language Models: Improved Privacy and Security
13:09 Social Media Chatbots: Coming to Your Groups
18:24 AI Writing Tools: The New Normal
24:16 AI Costs: Dropping Fast
30:43 The AI Horse Race: Who Will Lead?
Anti-Predictions: What Won't Happen in 2025
36:01 Handwritten Text Recognition
40:21 AI Generated Family Trees and Diagrams
44:06 Generated Text in Images
Resource Links:Using Claude for 'Computer Use' Tasks
https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/build-with-claude/computer-use
OpenAI's Operator Agent
https://openai.com/index/introducing-operator/
Facebook's New AI Tool for Groups
https://aigenealogyinsights.com/2024/10/22/exploring-facebooks-new-ai-tool-for-groups/
What to Know About DeepSeek and How It Is Upending A.I. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/27/technology/what-is-deepseek-china-ai.html
Trump's $500B Stargate AI Initiative https://www.forbes.com/sites/ronshevlin/2025/01/23/trumps-ai-push-understanding-the-500-billion-stargate-initiative/
Tags:artificial intelligence, technology, genealogy, family history, AI predictions, AI agents, local AI, social media, chatbots, AI writing, language models, OpenAI, DeepSeek, privacy, security, AI costs, machine learning, computer automation, research tools, future technology