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.

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

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/

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

Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little explore Google's powerful end-of-year releases that challenge other AI platforms. They examine Google's Deep Research tool and its ability to quickly create comprehensive research reports by combining information from multiple sources.

Next, they discuss Facebook's controversial introduction of AI assistants to Facebook groups and what this might mean for genealogy communities.

The hosts review Google's NotebookLM's significant updates, including enhanced audio capabilities and collaborative features that could transform how genealogists work together.

This week's Tip of the Week demonstrates how ChatGPT Projects can organize and enhance genealogical research, with Steve using his approach to a 2025 genealogy do-over as an example.

In RapidFire, they cover Google's new fact benchmark, Gemini 2.0's release, AI-enhanced search results, and OpenAI's O3 announcement.

In the News:

06:44 Google Deep Research: The New Challenger to Perplexity

18:03 Facebook Groups Get AI Assistants

24:57 NotebookLM: Major Updates for Collaborative Projects

Tip of the Week:

32:15 ChatGPT Projects: Organizing Your Genealogy Do-Over

RapidFire:

41:52 Google's New Fact Benchmark

44:00 Gemini 2.0 Release

48:34 Google AI-Enhanced Search Results

54:48 OpenAI's O3 Model Announcement

AI Seminar at the Victoria Genealogical Society

https://victoriags.org/content.aspx?page_id=4091&club_id=554933&item_id=2488526

Legacy Family Tree Webinars: "Genealogy Meets AI: Panel Discussion"

https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/genealogy-meets-ai-panel-discussion/

Introducing Gemini 2.0: our new AI model for the agentic era

https://blog.google/technology/google-deepmind/google-gemini-ai-update-december-2024/

Certified Arborist Facebook Group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/12652295162

Exploring Facebook's New AI Tool for Groups

https://aigenealogyinsights.com/2024/10/22/exploring-facebooks-new-ai-tool-for-groups/

NotebookLM gets a new look, audio interactivity and a premium version

https://blog.google/technology/google-labs/notebooklm-new-features-december-2024/

Using Projects in ChatGPT

https://help.openai.com/en/articles/10169521-using-projects-in-chatgpt

A new benchmark for evaluating the accuracy of large language models

https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/facts-grounding-a-new-benchmark-for-evaluating-the-

factuality-of-large-language-models/

AI Overviews in Search are coming to more places around the world

https://blog.google/products/search/ai-overviews-search-october-2024/

OpenAI announces new o3 models

https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/20/openai-announces-new-o3-model/

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, Family History, Technology, OpenAI, Google, Perplexity, ChatGPT, Meta, Content Licensing, AI Conferences, AI Outage, Ethical AI, Disclosure, Genealogy Research, OpenAI Licensing, Google AI Issues, Perplexity Pages, ChatGPT Updates, Meta AI Developments, Grok.AI, AI in Genealogy, AI Tools, Technology in Genealogy, AI Transparency, AI and Privacy

Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little explore OpenAI's "12 Days of OpenAI" campaign, particularly focusing on their new reasoning models and the expanded availability of Canvas across all ChatGPT models.

They examine how ChatGPT's new camera view in Advanced Voice Mode transforms mobile research capabilities, demonstrating real-world applications for genealogists.

This week's Tip of the Week reveals how to get the most out of free AI tools by leveraging each one's strengths: Gemini for summarization, Perplexity for research, ChatGPT for reasoning, and Claude for writing.

In RapidFire, they discuss Apple's cautious AI updates in iOS 18.2, the release of GPT Search for free account holders, Harvard's million-book donation for AI training, and OpenAI's festive Santa Chat feature.

In the News:

02:41 12 Days of OpenAI: New Features and Updates

12:15 Canvas Integration: Now Available Across All Models

17:24 Advanced Voice Mode: ChatGPT Gets Camera View

Tip of the Week:

23:29 Maximizing Free AI Tools: The Right Tool for Each Task

RapidFire:

35:52 Apple Intelligence: iOS 18.2 AI Features

40:20 Free GPT Search Goes Public

45:22 Harvard's Million-Book Donation for AI Training

51:52 OpenAI's Santa Chat Mode

Resource LinksChatGPT

https://chatgpt.com/

12 Days of OpenAI

https://openai.com/12-days/

ChatGPT Canvas Feature

https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/chatgpt/openai-announces-official-launch-of-canvas-for-writing-and-coding-heres-whats-new

ChatGPT Projects Feature

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcB97h3vrzk

GPT Search is now free

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2024/12/16/chatgpt-search-now-free-for-all-heres-why-you-should-try-it/

Advanced Voice Mode with Vision

https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/chatgpt/chatgpt-advanced-voice-with-vision-just-launched-heres-how-to-try-it

ChatGPT Search and the Chrome Extension

https://openai.com/index/introducing-chatgpt-search/

Claude

https://claude.ai

Claude Projects

https://www.anthropic.com/news/projects

Gemini

https://gemini.google.com

Perplexity AI

https://www.perplexity.ai

Perplexity Pages

https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/perplexity-pages

Apple Intelligence

https://www.apple.com/apple-intelligence

Harvard Digital Collections

https://hls.harvard.edu/today/harvards-library-innovation-lab-launches-initiative-to-use-public-domain-data-to-train-artificial-intelligence/

https://institutionaldatainitiative.org/

ChatGPT Santa Mode

https://help.openai.com/en/articles/10139238-santa-s-voice-in-chatgpt

Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, OpenAI, Family History Research, Voice Technology, ChatGPT, AI Tools, Content Creation, Canvas, 12 Days of OpenAI