EP34: 2025 Mid-Year AI Review, FamilySearch Full-Text Goes Live, Nano Banana Photo Restoration Tips, AI's Environmental Impact
The Family History AI ShowShow Notes
Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little review the biggest AI breakthroughs of 2025 so far, from DeepSeek's open-source revolution to GPT-5's unified reasoning model. Mark and Steve also celebrate FamilySearch's Full-Text Search moving from experimental labs to the main website, covering 1.4 billion records across 4,300 collections plus new summarization and filtering features. This week's Tip of the Week provides practical guidance on using Nano Banana for photo restoration, explaining when it works brilliantly and when to exercise caution with damaged images. In RapidFire, they examine competing reports on AI's environmental impact, explore Google's new AI Mode in mobile apps, and discuss the landmark antitrust ruling that forces Google to share search data with competitors. Timestamps:In the News: 03:44 2025 Mid-Year Review: AI's Explosive Growth in Genealogy 29:08 FamilySearch Full Text Search Is Now Live 37:57 AI Success Stories in the Wild: Real Genealogists, Real Results Tip of the Week: 47:53 Best Uses for Nano Banana (Gemini Nano): Small Model, Big Impact RapidFire: 59:54 AI's Environmental Debate: Energy Costs vs. Benefits 1:03:50 Google AI in Mobile Apps: What It Means for Genealogists 1:11:07 Google Antitrust Ruling Issued: Impact on AI Development Resource Links:Intro to Family History AI by the Family History AI Show Academy https://tixoom.app/fhaishow
Full-Text Search (must be logged in to use this link) https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/full-text/
Full-Text Search Leaves FamilySearch Labs https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/full-text-search-leaves-familysearch-labs
How do I use FullText Search? https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-use-fulltext-search
Responsible AI Photo Restoration https://makingfamilyhistory.com/responsible-ai-photo-restoration/
WaPo AI Energy Usage, Sept 2024 https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/09/18/energy-ai-use-electricity-water-data-centers/
Google: How much energy does Google's AI use? We did the math https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/infrastructure/measuring-the-environmental-impact-of-ai-inference/
Judge orders Google to share search data as part of antitrust ruling --- but Google gets to keep Chrome https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/search-engines/judge-orders-google-to-share-search-data-as-part-of-antitrust-ruling-but-google-gets-to-keep-chrome?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Tags:Artificial Intelligence, Genealogy, Family History, DeepSeek R1, AI Reasoning, Open Source AI, Free AI Tools, ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, OpenAI Operator, AI Agents, Beginner AI Guide, Research Tools, Document Analysis, AI Democratization, Context Windows, Deep Research, AI Writing, Browser Automation, Genealogy Research, AI Accessibility, Reasoning Models, AI Education
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This episode is sponsored by the Family History AI Show Academy
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