Can Artificial Intelligence help in family history research?

 Can AI Help With Research?

After some help and encouragement from a friend, I decided to try using AI for help with a brick wall in a line I was researching for a different friend. So I clicked the "Ask Gemini" link at the top of my Chrome browser, and asked:

Who are the parents of Hanna Owl born about 1775 of Wellington, Shropshire, England?

This was the reply from Gemini:

"You said: I am looking for her parents

"The parentage of Hannah Owl is a known challenge in Shropshire genealogy due to a classic transcription error in historical databases. 

"The Identity of Hannah "Owl"   
Her true maiden name was not "Owl." In the original handwritten parish registers of All Saints Church in Wellington, Shropshire, her name was recorded as Hannah Howl (sometimes spelled Howle or Howles).

"When these early registers were digitally transcribed into major genealogical platforms like Ancestry and FamilySearch, the cursive "H" was misread as an "O", turning Howl into Owl. 

"The Howl family was an established family in the Wellington, Wrockwardine, and Dawley areas of Shropshire during the 1700s.

"Hannah's Parents and Baptism

"According to Shropshire parish records, she was baptized as Hannah Howl on November 14, 1773, at All Saints Church in Wellington, Shropshire. Her recorded parents are:

"Father: William Howl      Mother: Mary Howl (née Mary Davies)"

Wow!!!!

In any serious research, the motto is basically "Trust, but verify".

I discovered that Hanna's mother in the 1773 christening record is named Anne, not Mary.

Then I found a marriage of William Houl and Anne Meredith on 2 September 1765 in

Wellington, Shropshire, England, United Kingdom. The names, date and place match what I was looking for.

These appear to be Hannah's parents, despite the variation in the spelling of William's family name.

Can AI be useful? 

Based on this experience it can be, but verify by referring to official sources.