Written By BetterBot CEO & Co-Founder, Zlatko Bogoevski
It’s undeniable that ChatGPT is one of the most exciting products to come out in at least the last decade. I can’t remember the last time technical and non-technical people alike had such enthusiasm for a new tech product. Over the last week, I’ve had numerous emails from friends and colleagues with AI-generated poems, stories, and artwork. The growth numbers are staggering, ChatGPT reached 1 million users in five days. That makes it the fastest growing product in history!
Since most people reaching out know that I’ve been in the AI space for quite some time now, they flooded me with questions, ranging from possible uses to ethical implications of such technology. Understandably, many questions were about the impact on multifamily and whether BetterBot plans to utilize ChatGPT.
Intro to ChatGPT
Before I continue, here is a brief background on ChatGPT and how it came into existence. OpenAI created ChatGPT; OpenAI is an organization designed to advance humanity through the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence. OpenAI was founded by Elon Musk and Sam Altman, among others, who collectively pledged to donate 1 billion dollars to fund the organization. OpenAI has already received an investment of 10 billion dollars from Microsoft. The most successful OpenAI products to date have been DALL-E, GPT-2 and GPT-3, and now ChatGPT.
ChatGPT is a significant leap forward when compared to other AI language models. It’s not surprising because it does utilize one of the most complex neural networks and it is trained on a very large data set that also includes existing software code. To make it even more effective it was fine tuned by humans in order to always give the best response possible. It mostly avoids shortcomings of previous AI models that quickly descended into R rated responses.
How will ChatGPT impact multifamily?
Be ready to see all sorts of ChatGPT enabled multifamily products in the next 18 months, especially better digital assistants and automatically generated advertising and marketing content. I predict that many existing multifamily products will be scrambling to implement ChatGPT capabilities. I’m also anticipating new product ideas that don’t exist today and will be made possible with future advancements in AI language models. There will be opportunities for further automation and major cost savings for multifamily owners and managers.
However, as it is always the case with disruptive technologies we should expect some casualties. There will be a lot of pressure on legacy business models dependent on low skilled labor like call centers and non-tech savvy property management operators.
Potential issues with ChatGPT in multifamily
One of the primary concerns specific to multifamily is whether ChatGPT will expose property management companies and owners to legal liability. This type of technology will most certainly be tried and legislated in the coming years. How will it fit with the Fair Housing Act? How does it work in regulated segments like affordable, student, and senior housing? Will it fall victim to developing biases despite promised guardrails? Many questions still need to be answered but I’m confident that there are ways to de-risk deployment for AI technologies.
Ethical Considerations
We also have to ask ourselves how ethical it is to use a product like ChatGPT because, in essence, you can easily trick people into thinking that they’re communicating with another human. While AI can craft human-like responses, it’s important to remember that it does not possess empathy or human-like problem-solving abilities. We must consider that the legal climate around this question may change, as evident by the recent White House blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights. Similar laws are being crafted in Europe and elsewhere around the globe.
BetterBot and ChatGPT?
Here at BetterBot, we’re no strangers to this technology and GPT based models have been part of our AI engine for quite some time. ChatGPT will undoubtedly find a way into our product. BetterBot has a conversational platform that is architected to benefit from ChatGPT and other advancements in AI.
As of this writing there is no commercial API available for ChatGPT so we can only assume what the commercial capabilities will be based on the consumer version. Price will certainly be a consideration and we don’t expect it to come cheaply given that the consumer version is currently $20/month.
Since ChatGPT is not immune to the potential problems inherent in other AI language models we have to carefully consider how we deploy it. As BetterBot currently serves some of the biggest property management companies in multifamily, we have to make sure that the millions of people using our product to find their next home have a great experience.
I wish I was in a position to share specific information as I’m just as excited as everyone else to see what the future holds. We truly live in exciting times.
