ABOUT ME
Introduction
Steve Little is the AI Program Director for the National Genealogical Society and has lifelong passions for language, technology, and genealogy. He completed graduate-level coursework in applied linguistics with a focus on natural language processing and computational linguistics—two foundational components of today’s large language models. His early career centered around libraries and archives (law, local, university, and state), where he specialized in building information systems.
Steve’s roots run deep in one Appalachian county—Ashe County, North Carolina—where by 1820, all 32 of his 3rd-great-grandparents had settled, and 60 of his most recent ancestors were born, lived, and died. His genealogical focus is on AI and genetic genealogy, particularly the challenges of endogamy, pedigree collapse, and complex relationship mapping. He is especially curious about exploring both the beneficial uses and current limitations of artificial intelligence in genealogical research.
Outside of genealogy, Steve is a husband, father, Methodist pastor, and Virginian. His hobbies include birdwatching, stargazing, chess, film, photography, and writing. He’s also a self-professed regex script hacker—an expert in using powerful search patterns for data refinement and discovery.