ChatGPT is adding to the fire, and the AI now has a new feature that can help users find and buy (or rent) a home.
as independent (opens in a new tab) The feature is reportedly provided by real estate company Zillow, which has released a ChatGPT plugin to assist in finding homes.
Find your next home with simple conversations. See how #ChatGPT’s new Zillow plugin can help you on your home buying journey. 💬 pic.twitter.com/qZuDo3dODcMay 3, 2023
You can see an example running with the plugin in the announcement tweet above, but the basic idea is to let ChatGPT know some initial parameters — location, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, budget, and anything else you can think of.
You can then refine the results, add more queries like you would normally interact with an AI, and even ask ChatGPT to recommend places with open houses this coming weekend, as in the example above. Of course, the AI pulls all of this information directly from Zillow’s database of properties for sale and rentals.
That’s all you can do right now — just the basics — for example, the Zillow plugin won’t let you contact a real estate agent and book a showing.
The Zillow plugin is now available for ChatGPT, but it’s only working for some users (as of yesterday), a wider rollout will follow in time.
Analysis: Reasons for concern?
An obvious problem with bringing AI into the world of home buying is that it’s a big decision to make — and inevitably a stressful time. (As those surveys about the toughest moments in life always point out – it might not be the worst, by any means, but moving is definitely the worst, especially when things go wrong).
Anyway, AIs are known to make mistakes, especially in the early stages of their existence – ChatGPT is only half a year old after all, and Bing AI (powered by ChatGPT) dropped some very notable mistakes early on. Clearly , what you don’t want is a sudden error in your home search and missing something because you trusted the AI, but it screwed up somewhere.
Granted, the scope of the error should now be limited, given that the Zillow plugin is simply pulling from the company’s property database — but it’s still there. No doubt that’s why the rollout of this ChatGPT feature has been slow, so Zillow can collect feedback and fine-tune it as it goes.
We’re going to have to get used to AI being in every industry and every corner of our lives as it’s the hot topic of the year and there’s no doubt more tendrils of AI will creep into all of our presence as 2023 rolls around .
