Is the FamilySearch AI Assistant Really an AI Assistant?

 

An AI assistant is designed to work with you in real time—answering questions, finding data, and keeping you firmly in the driver's seat—whereas an AI agent is built to execute workflows for you behind the scenes. The FamilySearch Research Assistant does not answer questions and keep you in the driver's seat. In the image above, the FamilySearch AI Assistant gives me 5 possible "new ancestors" Let's see how these selections actually work. 

#1 William Inkerman Baxter 1885–Deceased GRPH-L4K

Clicking on the entry I get the following:

When I view the record, I see the following:

At this point, I have no idea how I am related to this person. So let's look at his profile before attaching the record. 

The England and Wales Census 1921 record shows up as a record hint. So no real new information is being added by the AI Assistant. The entry cited is not for William Inkerman Baxter but for someone namedd William Rikerman Baxter who was born about the same time as William Inderman and in the same county. However, all the sources for William Inkerman have his name as Inkerman. I can't view the original record for the 1921 Census on FamilySearch. All FamilySearch has is an index. 

There is no real reason to go on looking at this particular situation. Of course, a FamilySearch User could believe that the entries produced by the AI Assistant are somehow pre-validated and just follow the suggestion and add the two names to the family and leave it at that. 

You might argue that some of the entries are correct and can easily be verified, however, my experience is that the suggestions made to me lead to complex problems. Here is the next name in the list. 

In this case, Hosea Haywood GQK3-48C appears in a family of nine children. The husband and the wife are born in four different places: Whitwick, Leicestershire, England, Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire, England, Burnley, Lancashire, England, Coalville, Leicestershire, England,  The wife, Clara Jane Buckley 9KKQ-GL5 has a death in Nottinghamshire, England. 

Here is a Google Map showing the location of each of these towns and one county. 

The 1901 England and Wales Census show Hosea Haywood age nine in Coalville. According to a quick search on Findmypast.com, there are 11,463 records for Hosea Haywood born in 1892 in England. I guess this is enough of caution for all AI apps: Always verify anything that they find or say and doubly so, with the FamilySearch.org AI Assistant.