ChatGPT has added new capabilities by adding new features to its AI to help users find and buy (or rent) a home.
as an independent (opens in new tab) The feature is reportedly courtesy of real estate company Zillow, which has released a plugin for ChatGPT to help people find homes.
Find your next home with a simple conversation. See how the new Zillow plugin for #ChatGPT can help you on your home buying journey. 💬 pic.twitter.com/qZuDo3dODcMay 3, 2023
You can see an example of running the plugin in the announcement tweet above, but the basic idea is to tell ChatGPT some initial parameters: location, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, budget, and anything else you can think of. That’s it.
You can then add more queries to refine your results, just like you would normally interact with AI. Additionally, you can have ChatGPT recommend where to host your open house next weekend, as seen in the example above. Of course, AI pulls all this information directly from Zillow’s database of sales and rental properties.
That’s all we can do at this point. Just the basics. For example, the Zillow plugin does not allow you to contact real estate agents to book tours.
The Zillow plugin is currently released for ChatGPT, but (as of yesterday) is only available to a select few users, with a broader rollout planned.
Analysis: What Causes Concern?
The obvious problem with bringing AI into the world of home shopping is that this is a big decision to make and inevitably a very stressful time. (As research on life’s most difficult moments always points out, it may never be the worst, but moving is definitely there, especially when things go wrong).
In any case, AI is known to make mistakes, especially in the early stages of its existence. It’s only been half a year since ChatGPT came out. Bing AI (powered by ChatGPT) was an early launcher with a pretty notable cranger. And obviously what you don’t want is for your home search to error out or miss something because you trusted the AI and it failed somewhere.
Admittedly, the Zillow plug-in is simply pulling from the company’s real estate database, so the scope of the error should be limited at this point, but that’s okay. And the reason this ChatGPT feature is rolling out so slowly is definitely so that Zillow can gather feedback and make tweaks.
We need to get used to AI popping up in every industry and every corner of our lives. Because there’s no doubt that this year will be quite tasteful, with even more tendrils of AI creeping into all of our spheres. Presence as 2023 begins.
