Last month, Denyse Allen asked this question on the Genealogy and AI Facebook group:If volunteers use AI to transcribe documents, is that OK? I have strong opinions, but want to explain them. First off, the institutions running big crowdsourcing projects have staff who can automate sending all of their documents to AI engines for transcription. As a software developer, … [Read more...] about Is That Transcription Really Human?
ai & crowdsourcing
AI and Crowdsourcing are Overturning Archival Workflows
March 2025 We were talking recently to Paige Roberts, the lone archivist at the Phillips Academy, and she said something interesting: "I just acquired a new collection. I'm kind of weird, I don't do processing, I just digitize it and throw it up on FromThePage, and boom, people transcribe it. If it's from 1790 you don't really know what you have until … [Read more...] about AI and Crowdsourcing are Overturning Archival Workflows
Bot Traffic, AI Training, and Infrastructure Strain
This month’s update is a bit more technical than usual, but we think it’s important. It offers a behind-the-scenes look at how bot traffic—often related to AI training—impacts platforms like FromThePage and the digital infrastructure of cultural heritage institutions more broadly. Over the past year, FromThePage has experienced three major service outages caused by waves of … [Read more...] about Bot Traffic, AI Training, and Infrastructure Strain
Can LLMs Help With Boring Forms?
Two weeks ago, I looked at Ben and said "What we obviously should build next is field-based AI-Assist." Transcribing forms or "spreadsheet-like" ledgers and rolls is not as much fun as transcribing letters or field books, so anything that makes the process easier might appeal to volunteers. And because the text is more "data" than "text", it should suffer less from … [Read more...] about Can LLMs Help With Boring Forms?