This month we are excited to share a fascinating project that highlights the power of crowdsourced transcriptions combined with AI. The Library of Virginia recently hosted a workshop titled "Envisioning Ancestors with AI," which utilized transcriptions of historic records from the Virginia Untold project (transcribed on FromThePage) to create imaginative depictions of people from the past.
Workshop Highlights:
- Historic Records and AI Integration: Participants worked with "Free Negro Registers;" historical documents that contain detailed physical descriptions of free Black and multiracial Virginians. These records, digitized as part of the Virginia Untold project, served as the foundation for the AI-generated images.
- Hands-On Experience: Attendees learned about the ethical considerations and limitations of AI technology while using free text-to-image AI tools. They brought descriptions of their own ancestors or found historic descriptions in Virginia Untold to generate imaginative portraits.
- Community Engagement: This workshop provided an engaging way for participants to connect with their heritage, adding a personal and human dimension to their genealogical research.
One participant, Viola Baskerville, successfully created an image of her great-grandmother, Jane Gentry Johnson, combining historic descriptions with family photographs. This exercise highlighted both the potential and the current limitations of AI in representing diverse ancestry accurately.
“AI provides a more personal human dimension to a long-lost ancestor. Genealogy is more than just data; it’s telling a story, working towards a concept of a 3-D human being. AI creates that 3-D concept in your mind. It’s a more holistic picture, and a sense of being and belonging.”
– Viola Baskerville
You should definitely go read the full article, and see a lot more images, on the Library of Virginia’s UnCommonWealth blog. Kudos for LVA for not shying away from such a challenging but meaningful project!