[Digory]

I had ChatGPT translate some old, handwritten French legal documents for family history purposes. It was far more accurate than I expected.

At scale, with better models, we might have a way to clear out the old archives. Not only could you translate, you could ask it to triage the discoveries. "Would the average person find this noteworthy?"

[contingencies]

I have a ton of handwritten German stuff from the 19th century. My grandmother could make a fair stab at it, but nobody left can read it. I've shown modern Germans and they are at a loss. Thanks for your idea, I will give it a look. Any tips on model/method/training?

[CamperBob2]

Try both Gemini Pro and ChatGPT. They are both outstanding at reading almost-unreadable documents. Use the highest thinking level your account supports.

(If you want to post a sample or two here, I'll try it. I like to collect difficult out-of-distribution test materials.)

[Digory]

This was about a year ago, and it was pretty rudimentary. I'd just drop in jpegs into ChatGPT and ask for a translation of small sections.

If I were doing it today, I'd probably do it in codex or code, have it develop a plan, look for better tools, etc.

Report back if you have success!