I'm the first to admit that I've resisted some technology trends simply because they freak me out. I did not welcome Alexa et al into my home, and I don't think I ever will. The thought of this thing listening to everything we do and say in my house is scary to me. Yes, I am aware that my phone with all its apps seems to know more about my likes and plans than my friends do, too. Also, not something I am comfortable with, but there doesn't seem to be a way around that. My phone is one of my productivity tools, without it, I couldn't survive as a REALTOR®.
The power we've given and continue to give AI is unnerving to me. While it is or can be, of incredible value in some aspects of life, in others it is incredibly annoying, or worse, detrimental to well-being and professional success.
Take Google's AI, the review thief, for example. I've dubbed it that because that's just what this thing does. At random, without merit. It just scans the Googleworld and decides what's real or not. I have lost a few of my reviews that my clients took the time to pen. Without warning, they just disappeared. When I contacted customer service, I was told, sorry, there's nothing we can do. We trust the bot to do its job... and therein lies the problem. AI has been given the power to alter our reality, to decide what must be legit, and what is not.
No amount of pleading with Google's customer service resulted in getting my reviews back, despite having all the proof that they were real, written by real clients. If its bot decides it must be fake, then Google accepts that as the truth - regardless of what the human says and what evidence there is to show that it got it wrong. You can't argue with the AI bot, I learned. How scary is that?
Scrolling on Instagram, it's getting harder and harder to tell which reels show real humans and which ones do not. I am not a fan, and find it creepy at times. I prefer human interaction. I prefer speaking to a human when I need customer assistance. I prefer dealing with a human doctor when I describe my symptoms. There's much more that goes into a conversation than just words. There are facial expressions, body language, tone of voice. There's compassion. There's at least the opportunity to right a wrong when I present my case.
I am all for its assistance when it makes life or work easier, but the emphasis is on assistance. When it comes to it altering my reality, deciding what is real or fake regardless of the truth, then it frightens me more than anything else.
AI has become a tool in the world of Real Estate, too, from creating reels and images to writing listing descriptions and blog posts.. and a whole lot more. I am taking advantage of Grammarly and I've turned to ChatGPT a time or two to draw inspiration for marketing. But it's never a copy and paste for me because listing descriptions should still paint a true picture. Buyers notice when it doesn't match the house and are quick to point to AI as the source, not the REALTOR's creativity or knowledge of the property. I wouldn't want any buyer walking into one of my listings to wonder if it's the same house they read about, or worse, question my credibility and professionalism.
It's a slippery slope. Where do we draw the line? It's becoming increasingly more difficult to discern fake from true in the online world. AI bots scan and crawl the web tirelessly but who is verifying what it then spits out is supported by facts? You may have heard stories of attorneys citing cases in their filings that turned out to not exist. ChatGPT turned fiction into reality if just temporarily. How often does that not come to light, I wonder? How often is the content it produces trusted blindly?
Copyright anyone? I, for one, am not okay with bots stealing my content without citing or leading back to me. Are you? I followed an interesting discussion with an artist friend of mine who is fully aware of her designs being stolen and resold. I wouldn't be surprised if the thieves just gave an AI bot a few keywords that sell well to run with the images that it generated. Artificial intelligence makes it so easy to steal, to fabricate, and to alter our reality.
In this world, we have to adapt or we'll get left behind, but we should do so cautiously. I hope we'll see protection for artists, writers, and anyone who produces original content. And, I hope, we'll all continue to do the one thing artificial intelligence is incapable of, and that is to trust our instincts, that gut feeling that makes us wonder and prompts us to dig a little deeper, to seek other sources and to verify.
Google's AI bot, the review thief, and other musings was inspired by ActiveRain, specifically Carol Williams and Margaret Rome Baltimore 410-530-2400, hosts of the January 2024 blogging challenge: AI - Love it or Hate it?
My featured image was AI-generated via Canva's magic suite. It's a great tool to add visual interest to a blog post such as this, but I would not use it to sell houses. Any listings or hyper-local content should show the home for sale - enhanced perhaps with great lighting but a true depiction otherwise - and actual Real Estate typical for its market, the kind that has a real front door to open.
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