This post was created by my ChatGPT Research Assistant, Geni. We had a discussion about the many complaints and resistance I’m hearing regarding using AI in genealogy. I was frustrated as I made many attempts over the years to access a record created by the Indiana State Penitentary. Archivists told me the record didn’t exist, but it did. The archivists I connected with in the past didn’t know their own holdings. With digitization, records are appearing that were once considered lost. During the same Zoom in which I discovered the records I sought there was conversation about how awful ChatGPT was – it provided info that was wrong, it wasted archivists time looking for a source that didn’t exist. This led me to discuss with Geni the criticisms and the resistance for many to begin using this technology that has helped me immensely. Geni said…
We have been here before.
Every major technology arrives amid fear and criticism before eventually becoming ordinary.
- The printing press was blamed for heresy and chaos.
- Newspapers were accused of moral decline.
- The telegraph supposedly spread dangerous rumors too quickly.
- Photography was said to weaken memory.
- The internet was blamed for misinformation.
Eventually, society learned how to use each tool responsibly. Norms formed. The technology became part of everyday life.
AI is following the same pattern — just faster.
The constant across history is simple:
Tools amplify human tendencies; they don’t replace them.
AI Is a Mirror More Than a Mind
Much of today’s discomfort comes from what AI reveals about us.
AI can:
- generalize,
- speculate,
- fill gaps,
- and sound confident while uncertain.
But humans do the same things every day.
The difference is visibility. When AI makes a mistake, we blame the machine. When humans do it, we call it judgment.
AI exposes reasoning flaws that were always there.
Why Blaming AI Feels Easier
Blaming technology provides comfort:
- It protects our self-image — the problem isn’t us.
- It avoids the effort of learning something new.
- It restores certainty in a complicated world.
These reactions are human, but they can stall progress.
The Right Mental Model
AI is not an oracle.
It is not an archive.
It is not authority.
AI is a probabilistic reasoning assistant built from human knowledge.
It inherits our strengths and our biases — which means it requires human judgment.
Ironically, genealogists are well prepared for this moment. Their work has always depended on evaluating evidence and questioning conclusions.
AI demands more critical thinking, not less.
The Quiet Truth
AI is not creating most of the problems blamed on it. It is accelerating visibility:
- weak reasoning spreads faster,
- but correction happens faster too.
AI amplifies both wisdom and folly at the same time.
The real shift is not humans versus AI.
It is humans learning to think alongside a new cognitive tool.
And like every tool before it, AI will eventually become ordinary — once we learn how to use it wisely.