About this episode

Mark Thompson and Steve Little review significant AI advancements of 2025, including FamilySearch's new features and practical photo restoration tips using Nano Banana.

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…

People in this episode

Hosts: Mark Thompson, Steve Little

Topics covered

• AI breakthroughs
• FamilySearch Full-Text Search
• photo restoration tips
• AI environmental impact
• Google AI developments
• antitrust ruling

Keywords

• AI breakthroughs
• FamilySearch
• photo restoration
• Nano Banana
• environmental impact
• Google AI
• antitrust ruling

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: DeepSeek, FamilySearch, Google

Products: GPT-5, Nano Banana

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