EP42: Summer Model Releases, Desktop Apps, AI Hacking Spree, and Handwriting Transcription

Description

Co-hosts Mark Thompson and Steve Little return from institute season to unpack a summer that reshaped the artificial intelligence landscape, beginning with the new model families from OpenAI and Anthropic and how to choose among them.

The hosts then examine desktop artificial intelligence applications, which read and write files directly in a folder on your own computer, followed by Mark’s Tip of the Week on connecting ChatGPT Desktop to Excel to update one of his complex spreadsheets.

In RapidFire, the hosts cover the hacking spree that both OpenAI and Anthropic disclosed this summer, models solving mathematical problems that stumped researchers for decades, and handwritten text recognition finally crossing the line into everyday usefulness.

The through line in today’s episode is the shrinking list of things artificial intelligence cannot do, and what that might mean for genealogy.

This episode is sponsored by the East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference

The East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference is one of the best places in the world for advanced genetic genealogists to learn how the newest advances in genetic genealogy can improve their family history research. Mark and Steve are both presenting, and the conference begins August 21, 2026, in Boston. In person and online options are both available.

https://ecggc.org/

TimestampsOpening00:16 East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference in Boston

In the News03:40 Summer Model Releases: Choosing Between Fast, Cheap, and Good

07:54 The Rise of the Desktop Apps: Artificial Intelligence That Reads Your Local Files

Tip of the Week16:20 Connecting ChatGPT Desktop to Excel: Rebuilding a Complex Spreadsheet