I’m yet to be convinced that AI is really all that intelligent. My case in point: last week I was on a quest to find out about a story I heard that happened in Marble Falls, more than 100 years ago. Below is a link to a story I wrote a few days ago, mostly attempting to see who knew of this happening.

https://angorachronicles.com/2025/02/23/the-wrongful-conviction-and-hanging-of-a-black-girl/

Well, no one that responded had ever heard of it. How did a story this harrowing happen right in our own little town, yet no one recalls ever hearing about it?

As you can see by reading the above, I was unable to find anything online, so I resorted to AI to see what it could conjure up.

These are all the screen shots that lead me to believe that I could get to the bottom of what really happened.

Armed with what I had been told, I went to The Herman Brown Library in Burnet, Texas where they have a nice archive of Marble Falls Messenger Newspaper on Microfilm from the dates when the incident supposedly occurred. After a fairly exhaustive search, I was unable to find even a hint of any of the facts of this case.

While I was let down at not being able substantiate the story, I was relieved to think that perhaps it didn’t really happen, at least in our town.

I decided to try a different approach with AI. So this is how I asked the question the next time. So here goes:

I think we should step into the world of AI with a bit of skepticism. Knowing that the longer it’s in existence, the better it will become. But what I’m saying, at this point in time, use it, but don’t take it all too seriously. Do your homework to make sure you aren’t being led down a primrose path.

In closing, I think it’s possible that this story was told throughout the years and eventually it grew into something that happened right here in Burnet County. I think it undoubtedly happened somewhere, even multiple times. I just don’t see evidence that it happened in Marble Falls. It is just part of the lore in the African American Community. Wherever it happened, the story highlights the suffering and tragedy than was suffered by so many.