I should add, “…and With Absolutely No Judgment”, because AI is not a sentient being and has neither intelligence, ethics, nor common sense.

I’ve put off writing about AI, but several recent experiences have convinced me that too many people are trusting AI without understanding either its strengths or its dangers. That made me realize that I absolutely MUST write this series.

Here’s the challenge, though, and the quandary, which is why I’ve hesitated.

I can’t talk about the good, without talking about the problems and abject failures. I can’t do the reverse either, because there’s absolutely an upside. Plus, AI is getting “better” every day. Better is subjective, depending on how AI is applied.

I’m neither an AI evangelist nor a doomsayer. I’m a cautious practitioner.

Like it or not, AI is here to stay, and it’s already embedded in your life in ways you might not realize or recognize.

AI has great potential for good, helping us in our daily lives. It also has an equivalent potential for evil. There’s a very dangerous aspect of AI, and you absolutely need to be aware so that you can take steps to protect yourself.

That said, AI provides extremely useful tools…under some circumstances. I use it for something almost every day – but NOT to write my articles. These are my words. Yes, I do sometimes ask AI for input, and I’ll share how I balance my work and my words with AI assistance – like creating the graphic in this article.

AI is really about education and balance.

To achieve that, I’m writing a four-part series that will be:

• Encouraging but not advocating for AI
• Friendly rather than alarmist
• Skeptical and vigilant rather than anti-AI
• Educational rather than preachy
• Focused on critical thinking
• Warning when necessary

I’ve been working with AI since the beginning in a very restricted, measured way. I use AI regularly, tactically, and cautiously, with huge guardrails. I took the original classes from Mark Thompson and Steve Little, AI experts that I absolutely trust, to learn how to use AI both productively and safely. That was a couple of years ago, and a lot has changed since then. I make it a priority to stay current. We’ve been growing as a community ever since, celebrating our successes and analyzing the failures.

Mark and Steve say:

1. Know your tool
2. Know your limitations
3. Know your data

I would add

• Know your subject
• Know what can (and will) go wrong

You absolutely, positively must check and verify everything AI tells you, without fail.

Being trusting and over-confident is a fool’s errand and assuredly will come back to bite you, sooner than later. It’s essential to be hypervigilant.

In a nutshell, AI is a wonderful servant, although sometimes it has an attitude and doesn’t listen to directions well, but it’s a terrible authority. AI, much like my teenagers used to do, fibs very convincingly and with impunity.

As the adults in the room, it’s up to us to always monitor and check AI output – and learn to recognize it when others use it as well.

That’s the purpose of this series. I’ll be combining my computer science background and genetic genealogy expertise with a couple of years of hard knocks in the AI arena to help everyone be safe and effective. I’ll be sharing successes and failures, good examples, and do I EVER have a great bad example for you.

Articles will include:

• All About AI – What is AI and How Does It Work?
• AI Assistants – The Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the Clandestine
• AI and Genealogy – Brick Walls, Breakthroughs and Blunders
• The AI Threat Landscape – Evil, Dangers and You

My Dad used to tell me, “You don’t have to roll in every mudpuddle that the rest of us have rolled in just to come out the other side saying it’s wet and it’s muddy.”

Some lessons are better learned by someone else going first.

Technology changes, but human nature doesn’t. The tools may be new and revolutionary, but the risks of overconfidence, misplaced trust, and wishful thinking are as old as humanity itself. So come along and join me for the next article, where I’ll share what finally pushed me over the edge to write this series.

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