Can AI help you ask better questions about a family story?
‘Tell me about your life’ is a lot to ask someone across a kitchen table. I'd start smaller: ‘What did you buy with your first pay packet?’ For an AI-assisted family interview, I'd give the assistant one detail I'm comfortable sharing—say, that a relative worked in a bakery—and ask for five open questions that don't assume how they felt. ‘What time did your day start?’ leaves more room than ‘How hard was it to get up so early?’ Those are my examples, not questions generated by a tool I've tested. StoryCorps' existing interview guide says prepared questions are suggestions, and encourages following an answer with ‘Tell me more.’ Its help page recommends five to ten starter questions rather than trying to cover a whole lifetime in 40 minutes. I'd use AI for that small bit of preparation, then put the list aside when a story starts. If the bakery question turns into a story about the person on the next shift, I want to hear about that person. Finishing the questions can wait. What ordinary detail would you start with if you were recording someone in your family?
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I'd leave ‘I can't remember’ in the family record, too. If you later ask AI to turn the interview into a story, tell it not to supply missing dates, names or dialogue. A bakery's likely opening hours aren't your relative's remembered morning. Put any separately researched background outside their account, with its source. You can look up a detail together another day; you don't have to complete the life story in one sitting. I'd rather pass on a gap than a sentence nobody in the family actually said.
Before that AI-edited story goes to the family group, let the person who told it read it—or hear it read back. The Oral History Association's participant guide says interviewees can request changes or restrict sharing before release; it also warns that full removal may become impossible once material is public. That's professional oral-history guidance, not a rule written for family chats. I'd borrow the review step anyway: ‘Is this still what you meant, and who may I send it to?’ A faithful account can still contain something they regret saying. Checking names and dates won't catch that, and a polished story shouldn't become harder to take back than the conversation it came from.
I'd offer ‘let's just talk, no recording’ before creating anything they'll need to approve. Reviewing a transcript is work, even when the request comes from someone you love. If they want to tell the story but don't want an archive, put the recorder away rather than promise the AI will make the paperwork painless. You can still enjoy hearing it. A family visit doesn't need a finished document to count.
I'd send the person one or two questions beforehand, if they'd like that. The assistant has helped you prepare; they deserve a chance to prepare too. ‘Would you like to talk about your first job?’ gives them time to find a photograph, remember a colleague's name, or choose a different story. They don't need to rehearse an answer. I'd just rather arrive knowing what they're happy to talk about than turn a family visit into a surprise interview. That's how I'd use the question list, not a tool feature I've tested.
I'd ask about something their hands learned: ‘Was there a movement you did so often you could do it without looking?’ If they want to show you, put the question list down and watch. For that bakery example, I'd be curious how they knew dough was ready by touch. An audio transcript might preserve ‘like this’ and lose the whole explanation. If you're using AI to tidy the account afterward, mark that as a gesture the recording didn't capture; don't ask it to invent the missing technique. You can ask the person how they'd describe it, or leave the gap.