Description

Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little return from institute season to unpack a summer that reshaped the artificial intelligence landscape, beginning with the new model families from OpenAI and Anthropic and how to choose among them.

The hosts then examine desktop artificial intelligence applications, which read and write files directly in a folder on your own computer, followed by Mark’s Tip of the Week on connecting ChatGPT Desktop to Excel to update one of his complex spreadsheets.

In RapidFire, the hosts cover the hacking spree that both OpenAI and Anthropic disclosed this summer, models solving mathematical problems that stumped researchers for decades, and handwritten text recognition finally crossing the line into everyday usefulness.

The through line in today’s episode is the shrinking list of things artificial intelligence cannot do, and what that might mean for genealogy.

This episode is sponsored by the East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference

The East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference is one of the best places in the world for advanced genetic genealogists to learn how the newest advances in genetic genealogy can improve their family history research. Mark and Steve are both presenting, and the conference begins August 21, 2026, in Boston. In person and online options are both available.

https://ecggc.org/

00:16 East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference in Boston

03:40 Summer Model Releases: Choosing Between Fast, Cheap, and Good

07:54 The Rise of the Desktop Apps: Artificial Intelligence That Reads Your Local Files

16:20 Connecting ChatGPT Desktop to Excel: Rebuilding a Complex Spreadsheet

25:58 Artificial Intelligence Breaks Out: OpenAI and Anthropic Disclose Sandbox Escapes

31:24 Century-Old Math Problems Solved: Why Verifiable Fields Fall First

38:03 Handwritten Text Recognition: Transcription Is No Longer the Hard Part

46:10 Episode Wrap and Boston Send-Off

East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference

https://ecggc.org/

Summer Model Releases

United States Government Grounds Anthropic

https://www.anthropic.com/news/fable-mythos-access

Sol Cheated on Itself

https://deploymentsafety.openai.com/gpt-5-6

The Rise of the Desktop Apps

Download ChatGPT for Desktop

https://chatgpt.com/download/

Install Claude Desktop

https://support.claude.com/en/articles/10065433-install-claude-desktop

Download Google Antigravity

https://antigravity.google/

Artificial Intelligence Solves Century-Old Math Problems

Ten Math Claims, Public Receipts from OpenAI

https://openai.com/index/ten-advances-in-mathematics/

Anthropic Cracked an 87-Year Math Problem

https://fortune.com/2026/07/21/ai-solves-jacobian-conjecture-levant-alpoge-claude-fable-5/

Handwritten Text Recognition

Dan Maloney’s Artificial Intelligence Handwriting Transcription Rankings

https://www.genea.ca/rankings/

Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, Family History, OpenAI, Anthropic, ChatGPT Desktop, Claude Desktop, Google Antigravity, Desktop Applications, Excel, Spreadsheet Automation, Handwriting Recognition, Document Transcription, Gemini, Model Selection, Sandbox Escape, Mathematics, Genetic Genealogy, Dan Maloney, AI Tools

Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little open with a deep look at MyHeritage's new Scribe AI, a new AI tool that analyzes records, photographs, gravestones, and coats of arms and provides genealogy relevant research suggestions. It even works on your own photographs.

This episode features an interview with Dave Vance, General Manager of Family Tree DNA, exploring how the hottest new genetic genealogy tests, provided by next-generation sequencing, deliver 400 times more genomic info than traditional microarray chips and what that means for matching, triangulation, and the future role of AI in genetic genealogy.

In RapidFire, the hosts cover Fold3's AI-powered full-text search for Revolutionary War pension files, Claude for Excel as a practical AI plug-in for Microsoft's spreadsheet, and Wikipedia's decision to ban AI-generated article content.

00:05 GRIP 2026 Course Announcements

05:03 MyHeritage Scribe AI: Record and Photo Analysis for Genealogists

14:58 Dave Vance, Family Tree DNA: Next-Generation Sequencing and AI in Genetic Genealogy

45:54 Fold3 Full-Text Search: Revolutionary War Pension Files Now Searchable

53:46 Claude for Excel: AI-Powered Spreadsheet Analysis Plug-in

1:00:47 Wikipedia's AI Policy: Editors Vote to Ban AI-Generated Content

1:08:19 Episode Wrap and Next Interview Preview

GRIP Genealogy Institute 2026 Courses

GRIP Genealogy Institute https://grip.ngsgenealogy.org/

MyHeritage Scribe AI

Introducing Scribe AI https://blog.myheritage.com/2026/03/introducing-scribe-ai/

Fold3 Full-Text Search

Revolutionary War Pension Files: Now Available Through Full-Text Search https://blog.fold3.com/revolutionary-war-pension-files-now-available-through-full-text-search/

Claude for Excel

Use Claude for Excel https://support.claude.com/en/articles/12650343-use-claude-for-excel

Wikipedia AI Policy

Wikipedia Cracks Down on the Use of AI in Article Writing https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/26/wikipedia-cracks-down-on-the-use-of-ai-in-article-writing/

Wikipedia: Artificial Intelligence Policy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Artificial_intelligence

Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, Family History, MyHeritage, Scribe AI, Family Tree DNA, Dave Vance, Next-Generation Sequencing, Genetic Genealogy, Fold3, Handwriting Recognition, Full-Text Search, Claude for Excel, Wikipedia, AI Policy, Record Analysis, Photo Analysis, Revolutionary War, RootsTech, AI Tools

Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little examine the major AI model upgrades released over the winter, comparing Anthropic's Opus 4.6, OpenAI's GPT 5.4, and Google's Gemini 3.1 Pro and their benefits for genealogists.

In a special interview recorded at RootsTech 2026, they sit down with Diana Elder and Nicole Dyer of Family Locket to explore how the Research Like a Pro methodology integrates with AI tools for transcription, locality research, and DNA analysis.

In RapidFire, they cover FamilySearch's new Simple Search interface for Full-Text Search, Ancestry's AI Stories feature for understanding historical records, and the escalating conflict between Anthropic and the U.S. federal government over the use of AI by the military.

In the News:

03:12 New AI Model Releases: Opus 4.6, GPT 5.4, and Gemini 3.1 Pro Transform Genealogy

Interview

19:40 Interview with Diana Elder and Nicole Dyer: Research Like a Pro Meets AI

RapidFire:

44:05 FamilySearch Simple Search: Natural Language Meets Full-Text Search

48:24 Ancestry AI Stories: Understanding Historical Records with AI

53:00 Anthropic vs. U.S. Government: AI Ethics Battle Elevates Claude

New Models

Introducing GPT5.4

https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-5-4/

Anthropic releases Opus 4.6

https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/05/anthropic-releases-opus-4-6-with-new-agent-teams/

Anthropic releases Claude Sonnet 4.6

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/17/anthropic-ai-claude-sonnet-4-6-default-free-pro.html

Gemini 3.1 Pro

https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/gemini-3-1-pro/

Interview with Diana Elder and Nicole Dyer from Family Locket

About Diana Elder and Nicole Elder Dyer

https://familylocket.com/about-us/

Simple Search for Family Search Full Text Search

How do I use Fulltext Search?

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-use-fulltext-search

Ancestry AI Stories

Ancestry Brings Family History to Life with New AI-Powered Stories

https://www.ancestry.ca/corporate/blog/ancestry-brings-family-history-to-life-with-new-ai-powered-stori

Anthropic and the U.S. Government

Trump orders government to stop using Anthropic in battle over AI use

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn48jj3y8ezo

Anthropic CEO responds to Trump order, Pentagon clash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPTNHrq_4LU

Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, Family History, AI Models, RootsTech, FamilySearch, Ancestry, Claude, ChatGPT, Google Gemini

In the last episode of 2025, Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little present their predictions for how artificial intelligence will transform genealogy research in 2026. This special episode examines fourteen key trends shaping the future of family history AI.

Mark and Steve predict that AI tools will move from enthusiast circles into mainstream genealogy practice, with AI-enhanced apps like NotebookLM becoming more important than the underlying language models that people have focused on for the past three years.

They explore how handwritten text recognition will become more accurate and accessible, and that genealogy companies will cautiously integrate new AI features, first focusing on helping us with our research.

02:33 Family History AI Goes Mainstream: From Enthusiasts to Everyday Users

04:13 Apps Over Models: Why Platform Features Matter More Than LLMs

06:17 Reusable Prompting Tools: GPTs, Projects, and Gems Boost Efficiency

08:02 AI-Enhanced Research Gains Acceptance Among Serious Genealogists

09:53 Handwritten Text Recognition Gets Better, Easier, and Cheaper

12:18 Genealogy Companies Take Cautious Approach to Generative AI

17:07 AI-Enhanced Browsers Become Standard, Agentic Features Raise Concerns

24:25 Voice Interfaces to AI Remain Niche in 2026

27:36 LLM Vendors Push File and Email Integration for Stickiness

31:46 Productivity Tools Embed LLMs Everywhere

35:56 The AI Horse Race: Three Leaders Emerge

41:15 AI Licensing Deals Change Internet Access Patterns

44:34 The AI Bubble Conversation is important to society, but less so to Genealogists

The Family History AI Show Academy

https://tixoom.app/fhaishow

Family History AI Goes Mainstream

What Can AI Do for Your Genealogical Research? – James Tanner (Nov 2025) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXmVKy1pUPE

FamilySearch Shares Plans for 2025 (Includes AI integration details) https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/familysearch-shares-plans-for-2025

Reusable Prompting Tools

Custom GPTs vs. Gemini Gems: Who Wins? - Learn Prompting (Aug 2025) https://learnprompting.org/blog/custom-gpts-vs-gemini-gems

AI-Enhanced Research

Unlocking Family Histories: How AI Is Breathing New Life into Handwritten Records (South Central APG)

https://southcentralapg.org/2025/08/16/unlocking-family-histories-how-ai-is-breathing-new-life-into-handwritten-records/

Handwritten Text Recognition

A new Google model is nearly perfect on automated handwriting recognition - Hacker News https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45887262

Cautious AI from Genealogy Companies

AI-Enhanced Browsers

Compliance alert: Do not use AI browsers

https://vinciworks.com/blog/compliance-alert-do-not-use-ai-browsers/

Content Integration with Chatbots

Gemini vs Copilot: A Quick Comparison Guide (2025) - Tactiq

https://tactiq.io/learn/gemini-vs-copilot

AI in Office Productivity Tools

Microsoft Copilot in 2025: What's Changed & What's Next | Aldridge

https://aldridge.com/microsoft-copilot-in-2025-whats-changed-whats-next/

Monthly Round Up: New Features in Microsoft 365 Copilot (Dec 2025)

https://dynamicscommunities.com/ug/copilot-ug/monthly-round-up-new-features-in-microsoft-365-copilot/

The AI Horse Race

The Best AI in October 2025? We Compared ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Gemini & Others - FelloAI

https://felloai.com/the-best-ai-in-october-2025-we-compared-chatgpt-claude-grok-gemini-others/

The 2025 AI Coding Models: Comprehensive Guide to the Top 5 Contenders - CodeGPT

https://www.codegpt.co/blog/ai-coding-models-2025-comprehensive-guide

AI Licensing Deals

Content Licensing Agreements Will Concentrate Markets Without Standardized Access - ProMarket

(Nov 2025) https://www.promarket.org/2025/11/20/content-licensing-agreements-will-concentrate-markets-without-standardized-access/

The False Hope of Content Licensing at Internet Scale - ProMarket

https://www.promarket.org/2025/11/19/the-false-hope-of-content-licensing-at-internet-scale/

The AI Bubble Conversation

The AI boom will turn to bust in 2026

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-ai-boom-will-turn-to-bust-next-year-says-this-forecaster-who-offers-his-trade-of-the-year-9c2a2332

OUTLOOK 2026 Promise and Pressure - J.P. Morgan (Discusses AI market stability vs bubble risks)

https://www.jpmorgan.com/content/dam/jpmorgan/documents/wealth-management/outlook-2026.pdf

Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, Family History, AI Predictions, NotebookLM, HTR, AI Browsers, ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude

Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little present a special year-end episode, comparing their 2025 AI predictions to what actually unfolded in 2025. This episode is a great review of the top AI advancements in 2025!

The hosts examine which predictions hit the mark, including the agentic AI hype cycle, plummeting AI costs driven by DeepSeek, and the dethroning of OpenAI as the top AI model. They also explore predictions that proved partially accurate, such as the shift to local language models and the adoption of AI in social media.

Mark and Steve have a good laugh over their biggest misses, including breakthroughs in text-in-image generation, image restoration, and vibe coding. They highlight how reasoning models were the transformative force behind nearly every major AI advancement in 2025.

The episode closes with a preview of next week's 2026 predictions episode.

03:30 Agents, Agents, Everywhere: Deep Research and Agentic Browsers

09:49 Cost of AI Drops Like a Rock: DeepSeek Disrupts the Market

12:26 OpenAI Dethroned: Gemini and Anthropic Rise

18:46 Local Language Models

23:54 AI Invades Social Media

28:24 AI-Enhanced Writing: From Grammar Checking to Ghost Writers

32:30 Family Tree Diagrams: Possible But Not Practical

36:03 Handwriting Recognition: Reasoning Improves Results

38:01 Reasoning Models: 2025’s Most Important Advancement

41:31 Text in Images: A Solved Problem

45:05 Image Restoration: Breakthroughs and Responsibilities

51:02 Vibe Coding: Speaking Software Into Being

Register for a Class with the Family History AI Show Academy

https://tixoom.app/fhaishow

Agentic AI

Agentic AI In-Depth Report 2025

https://hblabgroup.com/agentic-ai-in-depth-report/

Perplexity's New AI-First Browser Kicks Off Agentic Applications

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenwolfepereira/2025/07/11/perplexitys-new-ai-first-browser-is-kicking-off-agentic-applications/

Cost of AI

State of AI in 10 Charts

https://hai.stanford.edu/news/ai-index-2025-state-of-ai-in-10-charts

Free AI Tools 2025

https://thehumanprompts.com/free-ai-tools-2025-platforms/

OpenAI Dethroned

Geoffrey Hinton says Google is 'beginning to overtake' OpenAI

https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-godfather-geoffrey-hinton-google-overtaking-openai-2025-12

Local AI Hardware

Assessing the On-Device Artificial Intelligence (AI) Opportunity

https://www.qualcomm.com/content/dam/qcomm-martech/dm-assets/documents/assessing-the-on-device-ai-opportunity.pdf

Family Tree Diagrams

Explore how powerful AI image editing can support advanced creative workflows.

https://deepmind.google/models/gemini-image/pro/

Text in Images

Nano Banana Pro Review: Is Google's AI Image Generator Too Good?

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/google-nano-banana-pro-ai-image-generator-review/

Vibe Coding

No code, big dreams

https://www.businessinsider.com/non-technical-people-vibecoding-lessons-ai-apps-2025-9

Image Restoration

Responsible AI Photo Restoration

https://makingfamilyhistory.com/responsible-ai-photo-restoration/

Protecting Trust in Historical Images

https://craigen.org/protecting-trust-in-historical-images/

Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, Family History, AI Predictions, Reasoning Models, DeepSeek, Gemini, Image Restoration, Vibe Coding, Agentic AI

Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little examine Google's groundbreaking Gemini 3 release, which delivers state-of-the-art multimodal reasoning and sets a new benchmark for AI capabilities. They also explore ChatGPT's upgrade to version 5.1 with improved instruction following and better handling of longer conversation.

The hosts discuss Canva's new Creative Operating System, which now generates AI-powered designs directly within the platform.

This week's Tip of the Week demonstrates how Gemini 3 can use the context you provide it to greatly improve the accuracy of your hand written transcription.

In RapidFire, they cover NotebookLM's new deep research mode, Nano Banana's integration into Photoshop, Anthropic's privacy policy changes regarding training data, and how Claude's new usage monitoring feature can reduce your stress level.

In the News:

04:17 Google Gemini 3’s Multimodal AI Reaches New Heights

13:47 ChatGPT 5.1 upgrade is now better at following your Instructions

22:39 Canva Creative Operating System: AI-Powered Design Generation

Tip of the Week:

26:21 Adding Reasoning to Your Transcriptions Improves Accuracy

RapidFire:

36:40 NotebookLM Becomes a Fully Featured Research Tool

43:40 Nano Banana is Now Available in Photoshop

47:20 Anthropic Announces Claude Chats Will Be Used for Training Data

54:13 View Your Claude Usage in Settings

Intro to Family History AI by the Family History AI Show Academy

https://tixoom.app/fhaishow

Google Gemini 3

Introducing Gemini 3: A New Era of Intelligence

https://blog.google/products/gemini/gemini-3/

ChatGPT 5.1

A smarter, more conversational

https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-1/

GPT-5.1 New Features Explained

https://scalevise.com/resources/gpt-5-1-new-features/

Canva Creative Operating System

Introducing Canva's Creative Operating System

https://www.canva.com/newsroom/news/creative-operating-system/

NotebookLM Deep Research

NotebookLM adds Deep Research and support for more source types

https://blog.google/technology/google-labs/notebooklm-deep-research-file-types/

Nano Banana in Photoshop

Create with unlimited generations using Google Gemini 3 (Nano Banana Pro) in Adobe Firefly

https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2025/11/20/google-gemini-3-nano-banana-pro-firefly-photoshop

Anthropic Privacy Policy Update

Anthropic Will Use Claude Chats for Training Data: How to Opt Out

https://www.wired.com/story/anthropic-using-claude-chats-for-training-how-to-opt-out/

Updates to Consumer Terms and Privacy Policy

https://www.anthropic.com/news/updates-to-our-consumer-terms

Claude Usage Monitoring

Usage Limit Best Practices

https://support.claude.com/en/articles/9797557-usage-limit-best-practices

Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, Family History, Google Gemini, ChatGPT, Canva, NotebookLM, Nano Banana, Anthropic Claude, Photo Restoration

Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little discuss how new AI browsers are changing how genealogists research. They compare OpenAI's Atlas, Microsoft Edge, Google's Gemini, and Perplexity's Comet, explaining which features help family historians most.

The hosts share lessons from the early AOL era that can be applied to the AI era. They also explore Anthropic's new Haiku 4.5, a very fast model that works great for simple tasks like transcription and summarization.

Don’t miss this week's Tip of the Week, where Steve shows how AI can help you write better AI prompts. He uses an example for extracting information from draft cards to show how useful this approach can be.

In RapidFire, they cover new AI features in spreadsheets, major improvements in transcribing old handwriting, and how Microsoft Copilot's new agent store tries to help you with common tasks.

In the News:

01:20 Browser Wars Heat Up: OpenAI Atlas, Edge, and Gemini Compete

16:50 What AI Can Learn from AOL: Avoiding Walled Garden Mistakes

29:10 Anthropic's Haiku 4.5: When Smaller Models Beat Bigger Ones

Tip of the Week:

39:50 Using AI to Write Better Prompts for Historical Documents

RapidFire:

47:19 AI Makes Spreadsheets Easier: Google Sheets vs Excel

54:35 Reading Old Handwriting Gets Better: DeepSeek and Google Updates

01:05:15 Microsoft Copilot Adds Writing and Prompt Coaches

Genealogy and AI Facebook to hit 20k users!

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

An In-Depth Look at OpenAI's AI Browser

https://intuitionlabs.ai/articles/chatgpt-atlas-openai-browser

DeepSeek AI created DeepSeek-OCR

https://www.infoq.com/news/2025/10/deepseek-ocr/

Nearly perfect on handwriting recognition

https://generativehistory.substack.com/p/has-google-quietly-solved-two-of

Global AI Browser Market Size

https://market.us/report/ai-browser-market/

Benchmarking Claude Haiku 4.5 and Sonnet 4.5 on 400 Real PRs

https://www.qodo.ai/blog/thinking-vs-thinking-benchmarking-claude-haiku-4-5-and-sonnet-4-5-on-400-real-prs/

Anthropic’s Claude Haiku 4.5 Brings Enterprise-Grade Speed and Savings to Customer-Facing AI

https://www.cxtoday.com/contact-center/anthropics-claude-haiku-4-5-brings-enterprise-grade-speed-and-savings-to-customer-facing-ai/

Top 10 AI Spreadsheet Tools

https://www.knack.com/blog/top-ai-spreadsheet-tools/

Prompt Coach: Prebuilt agent for Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat

https://rishonapowerplatform.com/2025/03/11/prompt-coach-prebuilt-agent-for-microsoft-365-copilot-chat/

Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, AI Browsers, OpenAI Atlas, Google Gemini, Microsoft Edge, Perplexity Comet, Anthropic Haiku, Meta-Prompting, Spreadsheet AI, OCR Technology, Handwritten Text, DeepSeek, Microsoft Copilot, AI Agents, Document Extraction, Family History, Browser Wars, AI Models