Can you read this cursive handwriting? The National Archives wants your help

Post by patrick451 » Sat, Jan 18, 2025, 12:49 PM UTC

ugh123 wrote: post #97

varenc wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is because it’s the Smithsonian, they’re just not willing to trust an LLM’s transcription enough to put their name on it. I imagine they’re rather conservative. And maybe some AI-skeptic protectionist sentiments from the professional archivists. Seems like it could change with time though.

> My guess is because it’s the Smithsonian, they’re just not willing to trust an LLM’s transcription enough to put their name on it. I imagine they’re rather conservative I expect thats a common theme from companies like that, yet I don't think they understand the issue they think they have there. Why not have the LLMs do as much work as possible and have humans review and put their own name on it? Do you think they…

Post by vintermann » Sat, Jan 18, 2025, 12:52 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #39

demosthanos wrote: post #30

Before commenting asking about why they don't just use LLMs, please note that the article specifically calls out that they do, but it's not always a viable solution: > The agency uses artificial intelligence and a technology known as optical character recognition to extract text from historical documents. But these methods don’t always work, and they aren’t always accurate. The document at the top is likely an especi…

OK, fair enough, but can you find one in this article that's hard for an LLM? The gnarliest one I saw, 4o handled instantly, and I went back and looked carefully at the image and the text and I'm sold. Like if this is a crowdsourcing project, why not do a first pass with an LLM and present users with both the image and the best-effort LLM pass? Later I signed up, went to the current missions, and they all seem to pos…

Post by teddyh » Sat, Jan 18, 2025, 12:58 PM UTC

tkgally wrote: post #58

This reminded me of something the historian Megan Marshall wrote in the introduction to her book The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism (2005): “I became expert in deciphering the sisters’ handwriting, and that of their ancestors, parents, and friends. Each era and each correspondent presented different challenges. Some hands were sprawling, some spindly, some cramped; t ’s went uncrossed a…

Post by dr_dshiv » Sat, Jan 18, 2025, 1:14 PM UTC

anaisbetts wrote: post #122

tptacek wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, fair enough, but can you find one in this article that's hard for an LLM? The gnarliest one I saw, 4o handled instantly, and I went back and looked carefully at the image and the text and I'm sold. Like if this is a crowdsourcing project, why not do a first pass with an LLM and present users with both the image and the best-effort LLM pass? Later I signed up, went to the current missions, and they all seem to pos…

Did you actually check it? Sonnet 3.5 generates text that seems legitimate and generally correct, but misreads important details. LLMs are particularly deceptive because they will be internally consistent - they'll reuse the same incorrect name in both places and will hallucinate information that seems legit, but in fact is just made-up.

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 18, 2025, 1:26 PM UTC

jll29 wrote: post #117

Prompt: You are a paleologist specializing in analysis of cursive handwriting; tell me what the following text says: (pasting the picture). Output: The following is the declaration of James Lambert, a soldier of the Revolutionary War in North America. The said James Lambert this day personally appeared in the Probate Court of the County of Dearborn in the state of Indiana and at the November Term of said court (1841)…