Explore the fascinating world of Artificial Intelligence — and how it can seriously boost your genealogy game.

In Segment 1, we’re cutting through the jargon with 10 AI Vocabulary Terms You Need to Know. Whether you’re just getting curious about AI or already experimenting with it in your research, this will help you speak the lingo and understand what tools like ChatGPT are really doing under the hood.

Then in Segment 2, we’ll level up with 10 Powerful AI Prompts for Genealogy. These are practical, easy-to-apply techniques that will make your interactions with AI smarter, more focused, and way more useful for tasks like polishing writing, analyzing research, and even brainstorming creative ways to share your family stories.

Listen to both in podcast episode #297 (below), or watch the individual videos:

• A.I. Lingo 101
• 10 Powerful AI Prompts

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10 AI Vocabulary Terms You Need to Know

Whether you’re brand new to artificial intelligence or you’ve already dipped your toes in, knowing the new emerging lingo can help you navigate your way using tools like ChatGPT, Gemin and Grok.

So, let’s demystify AI, one term at a time! I’m going to  breakdown 10 essential AI terms that will help you understand how this technology works — and more importantly, how to use it effectively in your genealogy research and your life.

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1. Artificial Intelligence (AI):

The overarching field dedicated to developing computer systems capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence. This can include abilities like learning, understanding language, recognizing patterns, making decisions, and even generating creative content.

2. Generative AI:

AI systems capable of creating new and original content, such as text, images, or music, based on patterns learned from training data.

Genealogy use: Ask it to write a compelling ancestor narrative based on bullet points from your research.

3. Large Language Models (LLMs)

Advanced AI models that have been trained on vast amounts of text data, enabling them to understand and generate human-like language.

Genealogy use: Use an LLM to translate old German church records into English or summarize complex documents in plain language.

4. Chatbots

Chatbots are AI-powered conversational agents that simulate human conversation through text or voice. The keyword here is simulate. You’re not talking to another person, but it’s like a conversation in that you can go back and forth; you can give it more information, and it will update the response.

Genealogy use: Have an ongoing dialogue with a chatbot about your research question and get help brainstorming next steps.

AI can be all three! For example, AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Grok and Gemini are generative AI chatbots that uses large language models to produce human-like responses in conversation.

5. Prompt

A prompt is your question or set of instructions to the AI — it’s what you type to get the conversation started. It can feel like you’re using Google because you’re typing words into what looks like a search box. But AI is much more than search. And that box is really a conversation tool. You’re actually typing in instructions for what you want to create or learn more about.Genealogy use: Prompt example: “Write a short paragraph introducing my great-grandparents for a family reunion booklet.”

6. Prompt Engineering

Speaking of prompts, prompt engineering is where you really take the wheel to get where you want to go with AI. Basically, if you put garbage in, you’ll get garbage out. Likewise, if you’re clear in your detailed instructions it can do an amazing job. The art of prompt writing is essential to getting good results.

Prompt Engineering is when you craft better, more specific prompts to guide the AI toward helpful results. You can ask questions, but you have a lot more room to define the parameters for the kind of answer you will receive.

Genealogy use: Instead of “Summarize this,” try “Summarize this land deed in plain English, and explain what it tells us about ownership in 1850s Georgia.”

7. Priming

Have you ever asked AI something and thought, ‘Why did it answer like that?!” It may be a situation where a bit of priming would have helped. It’s probably a PICNIC – Problem In Chair Not In Computer!As part of your prompt engineering you’ll want to include priming. Priming is when you tell the chatbot exactly what you want from it. It’s like giving AI a pre-game pep talk so it knows the goal. Things like:- Limit your response to 200 words.
– Provide a response that is concise and to the point.
– Format the information in bullet points.

Genealogy use:  Start your chat with: “You’re a professional genealogist with 40 years of experience.”

8. Token

A basic text unit used by LLMs to process language. Think of it like a LEGO brick, which can be combined to build more complex structures. Just like words are made up of letters, text in AI is broken down into tokens, and that can be words, parts of words, or even symbols. Tools like ChatGPT have token limits and they vary depending on the model and subscription level. The more you pay, the more ChatGPT can handle.

9. Context Window

The context window refers to the amount of text (tokens) an AI model can “remember” and work with at once. It includes both your prompt and the AI’s responses. If you exceed the limit, earlier parts may actually be forgotten or ignored.

So, if you’re sharing a long family history or research report with the AI, you may notice that it starts “forgetting” details. That’s likely because you’ve hit the model’s context limit. To get better results, you might try summarizing or breaking your input into smaller chunks, or subscribing to a more powerful version.

10. Hallucination

Hallucination is when generative AI produces a reply that is plausible but inaccurate. AI is eager to please and provide some type of answer. When it first launched to the public back in late 2022, I did a video about the shocking results that I received. AI has improved lightyears but is still prone to hallucination. But now you have the vocab to help improve the odds against this: priming and prompt engineering. Add to your prompt “Do not hallucinate. Tell me if you don’t have an accurate and true answer to provide.”

These aren’t just buzzwords — they’re keys to unlocking better results with AI in your family history work. Now that you’ve got the vocabulary down, you’re ready to move into the fun part: creating prompts that really get results!

Are there some AI terms that you’ve come across that you’re wondering about? Drop them in the comments under this video on YouTube or on our podcast show notes webpage at genealogygems.com.

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10 Powerful A.I. Prompt Add-ons

Did you know that a simple tweak to your AI prompt can dramatically improve the results that you get? Why just have it write or transcribe a document when there’s potentially so much more that you can accomplish?

I want to share with you  10 powerful prompt add-ons that I use all the time that can help you get clearer answers, deeper insights, and even creative inspiration for your genealogy work.

These are easy to remember, practical to use, and perfect for anyone who wants to get more value from their AI assistant. Let’s make your prompts work smarter, and harder!

1. “How can I make this better?”

Improve and polish your own work. Consider request for specific improvements such as:
– How can I be more concise?
– What else should I consider including to keep the reader more engaged in this family story?

2. “What’s missing?”

Provide everything you think should be included (the more the better) and AI can help you figure out what you’ve omitted. If you think there will be several things, include a request to prioritize the missing items based on your priorities. For example, “what’s missing from this genealogy research report that a professional genealogist would want to know?”

3. “You’re an experience English professor. Find any typos or grammatical errors in my family history narrative.”

You can tweak this one based on your specific needs. How about trying:
“You’re a seasoned professional genealogist. Help me create a research plan to answer my research question (insert your question here).”

4. “Provide the instructions at 8^th grade level.”

Having a problem with your computer, genealogy software program or other techy issue. Why not get the answers and instructions in easy-to-understand way?

“5. “Remember to… “

Many AI chatbots can remember important information about you that can help it craft responses specific to you, without you having to add it to your prompt every time. Perhaps you always want short concise answers to questions, or all technical information explained at an 8^th grade level. Or perhaps you always want genealogy responses to be given from the perspective of a professional genealogist with 40 years of experience! ChatGPT, has Settings > Personalization where you can toggle on In Google Gemini’s click the gear icon (desktop) and go to Saved Info.

6. “Analyze this information. Explain any trends or insights you find.”

Attach a genealogy research report, results of your latest research or anything else that you would to look at from a new angle.

7. “Summarize this in up to five sentences / bullet points.”

Let’s say that you download a county history book from Google Books as a PDF, but don’t have time to read all 500 pages. Attach it and ask for a quick overview or summary. Consider including specific areas or families of interest that you want it to focus on.

8. “Include references to the page where the information is found within the reference document.”

While you’re having that county history summarized, do yourself a favor and have page numbers included in the answer. That you can instantly find the full text for the information included in the summary.

9. “Explain both sides of this argument.”

Have you run up against some contradictions in your research or gone head to head with another researcher who disagrees with your conclusions? Get some third party assistance from AI. You could use this for politics, dilemmas, trends or anything else you that you want to understand better from a wider perspective.

10. “Give me creative ideas for…”

Do you want to share a particular family story in a way that will intrigue your family? Attach the story to the conversation (examples include a narrative, timeline, or family group sheet), describe the intended audience (your grown kids, your grandkids, or the clan at the next family reunion) and ask for creative ideas for presenting the information. You could even include your strengths or interests such as “I like to quilt, make videos, and cook. I’m not crazy about writing, and computers aren’t my strength.”