Using AI to enhance listings

I once asked an Alexa for the meaning of life and it gave a surprisingly good answer. With some weirdness here and there that I could happily ignore!

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Yes, it is a good example of how NOT to use AI!

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Interesting. I do that, but only when chatting very informally with friends. “Am coming over”..”Will head home” “Think you’re right” etc etc..

cf Bridget Jones.

My phone’s spellcheck drives me batty because it so often changes what I am saying to something wrong!

OT, but Duolingo has famously shifted to all (or as much as possible) AI instead of staff, and I have noticed that it is getting accents wrong with increasing frequency. As in, it is telling me to watch my accents in a language that I’m proficient enough in to know that what I wrote is correct and what the app is telling me is wrong. I was already going to quit Duolingo as the end of my subscription because the CEO has been such a jerk about the staff replacement, but honestly, it has gone from a fun and useful app to complete trash in the last 2 years. RIP my 1200+ day streak, though.

Try an add on keyboard app. There are tons of them that replace the default phone app and work better.

Agreed. When using AI for work, it’s actually time-consuming, because of the inputs, training, fact-checking, etc. The advantage in those instances in how we use it is, we aim to produce at scale, which can save time and money in the longer run. But even then, the business results have to unfold over time.

Competition wise among companies, AI use is common. The key question is, how do businesses and brands differentiate, because if you can use AI, so can all of your competitors. To some degree, likewise with hosts and sitters.

And there have been studies coming out that point to AI users with limited work experience actually becoming stunted, because they’re not building and using muscles that older generations have.

The employment forecast is actually worse for younger folks, because their work is more easily automated away broadly speaking, because people start with basic work and historically build experience, judgment, etc. But because of automation, those jobs are shrinking as companies look to save money and prep to compete more efficiently.

Tangentially with sitting, it will be interesting to see how things unfold. For instance, better remote work probably will increasingly lean toward senior folks with deeper skills built through experience, rather than AI use, or toward people who are actually building and improving AI, rather than just using it.

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A tangent interesting to me: There have been years of business surveys and results pointing to younger generations preferring authenticity over polish. That’s why so many influencers and social media folks get advertising or sponsorship dollars, because younger consumers of media and products have specifically said that they believe in genuine folks over polished celebrities and trust higher production values less.

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My type of person. My best friends were the ones who made me look into myself, not the ones who told me what they thought I wanted to hear. The latter is not really caring about someone.

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Nice. Are you planning any parties for the upcoming holidays? :melting_face:

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Another benefit of an AI is that it won’t insist on being right all the time.

Curious thread.

Perhaps it’s a shame that AI cannot obligate Pet Parents to provide better, more complete content in their listings about their pets and properties, rather than simply enhance grammar or language. Most listings that we perceive as deficient are due to undesirable expectations or incomplete content rather than author styling.

Beware of garbage-in, garbage-out … if a PP uses limited input materials and basic instructions then AI will probably generate generic drivel that, while grammatically correct, discourages housesitter applicants.

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@GotYourBack Why do you think it’s a curious thread?

@andrealovesanimals, I found thread curious as it made me think.
Likely THS members have differing levels of experience and expertise with AI. Some may bring preconceived biases, perhaps even emotion, about AI output. AI can generate output that varies from value-add to garbage - perhaps for reasons of inputs, instructions, models or otherwise.
Suspect similar conversation could be had of AI on topics well beyond housesitting. Like with many innovations, there’s perhaps good and bad applications. In any case, thread did made me think.

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The models are evolving quickly. Teams I lead work wise have been testing various ones nonstop. Likewise with teams across our company and at many companies.

If you’re on LinkedIn and express interest in AI, its algorithm will start delivering you endless content about how countless companies and individuals are using various models, testing and learning.

At our company, everyone is pooling learning, because the speed of upgrades and improvements in all models isn’t something anyone can keep up with individually. Even across companies, teams can’t keep up.

This morning when I logged into Facebook to reply to a few comments I was offered 5 AI generated comments to respond with.

How ridiculous! The art of conversation is already dying as so many people prefer to text or type rather than speaking to one another. Now AI is making the human race even dumber as people don’t even have to think for themselves to craft a message. :roll_eyes:

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What concerns me is the resources used for this. I don’t claim to understand it well but I gather huge amount of power and water are required. It seems frivolous to me to squander these precious resources for often unimportant reasons. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be used but with caution I would think. Also the fact that continued use does appear to diminish our own capacity is a risky thing. Anyone seem the movie Idiocracy?

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Gmail has been offering automated responses for several years. I usually ignore them, but admit having used them a few times when the answer was very simple, like “yes, see you then “. It saves a little time then :slight_smile:

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@Cathie what do you mean by movie idiocracy?

It’s only a matter of time before platforms such as this one adapt and integrate AI as yet another service to offer the paid membership.

Hosts and sitters will be given the opportunity to use AI to either fully or partially complete their profiles, as well as offer to assist in composing reviews.

Those sitters who say “I’d NEVER sit for a host who uses any sort of AI to describe themselves” and the hosts who wouldn’t accept an AI generated sitter application will find themselves with diminishing options.