AI and Family History: Help or Hype?

Are you intrigued by AI tools but unsure how they fit into your family history research? Wondering whether you can trust AI with your ancestors' stories, or how to avoid introducing errors or bias into your work?This session is for family historians who want to better understand the role of artificial intelligence in genealogy - without the hype. We’ll explore the practical uses of AI for tasks like transcription, story writing, and research planning, alongside examples where it gets things wrong. You’ll learn a straightforward framework to help you decide when to use AI, how to interpret its results, and how to keep human judgement and historical context at the heart of your research.No technical background is needed - just curiosity and a desire to work more critically and confidently with AI. You’ll leave with greater clarity, practical takeaways, and a downloadable decision-making tool to guide your own use of AI in family history.

Attendees would benefit from a basic understanding of where AI may be used in Family History and some preliminary exploration of one or more tools.