Tag: user-friendly

OpenAI will now let you create videos from verbal cues

by Mariam El Hadary

Say hello to a new era of efficiency and innovation in real estate marketing, courtesy of Sora by OpenAI.

Imagine this: you’re a busy real estate agent, constantly juggling client demands and property listings. With Sora at your fingertips, generating captivating property videos becomes as simple as typing a quick text prompt.

Artificial intelligence leader OpenAI introduced a new AI model called Sora which it claims can create “realistic” and “imaginative” 60-second videos from quick text prompts.

In a blog post on Wednesday, the company said Sora is capable of generating videos up to 60 seconds in length from text instructions, with the ability to serve up scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion, and detailed background details.

“The model understands not only what the user has asked for in the prompt, but also how those things exist in the physical world,” the blog post said.

OpenAI said it intends to train the AI models so it can “help people solve problems that require real-world interaction.”

This is the latest effort from the company behind the viral chatbot ChatGPT, which continues to push the generative AI movement forward. Although “multi-modal models” are not new and text-to-video models already exist, what sets this apart is the length and accuracy that OpenAI claims Sora to have, according to Reece Hayden, a senior analyst at market research firm ABI Research.

Check out the OpenAI’s text-to-video model:

Hayden said these types of AI models could have a big impact on digital entertainment markets with new personalized content being streamed across channels.

“One obvious use case is within TV; creating short scenes to support narratives,” Hayden said. “The model is still limited though, but it shows the direction of the market.”

At the same time, OpenAI said Sora is still a work in progress with clear “weaknesses,” particularly when it comes to spatial details of a prompt – mixing up left and right – and cause and effect. It gave the example of creating a video of someone taking a bite out of a cookie but it not having a bite mark right after.

For now, OpenAI’s messaging remains focused on safety. The company said it plans to work with a team of experts to test the latest model and look closely at various areas including misinformation, hateful content and bias. The company said it is also building tools to help detect misleading information.

Sora will first be made available to cybersecurity professors, called “red teamers,” who can assess the product for harms or risks. It is also granting access to a number of visual artists, designers and filmmakers to collect feedback on how creative professionals could use it.

The latest update comes as OpenAI continues to advance ChatGPT.

Earlier this week, the company said it is testing a feature in which users can control ChatGPT’s memory, allowing them to ask the platform to remember chats to make future conversations more personalized or tell it to forget what was previously discussed.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of overwrite.ai and its owners.

This story has been published from an article in CNN BUSINESS published on February 2024.

For informative news and views on the world of real estate, proptech and AI, follow overwrite on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog

overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined

What’s next for AI in 2024

by Mariam El Hadary

MIT Technology Review’s What’s Next series looks across industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future.

Here’s their pick of AI trends to watch out for in 2024.

By Melissa Heikkilä and Will Douglas Heaven writing for MIT Technology Review.

1. Customized chatbots

You get a chatbot! And you get a chatbot! In 2024, tech companies that invested heavily in generative AI will be under pressure to prove that they can make money off their products.To do this, AI giants Google and OpenAI are betting big on going small: both are developing user-friendly platforms that allow people to customize powerful language models and make their own mini chatbots that cater to their specific needs—no coding skills required. Both have launched web-based tools that allow anyone to become a generative-AI app developer. 

In 2024, generative AI might actually become useful for the regular, non-tech person, and we are going to see more people tinkering with a million little AI models. State-of-the-art AI models, such as GPT-4 and Gemini, are multimodal, meaning they can process not only text but images and even videos. This new capability could unlock a whole bunch of new apps. For example, a real estate agent can upload text from previous listings, fine-tune a powerful model to generate similar text with just a click of a button, upload videos and photos of new listings, and simply ask the customized AI to generate a description of the property. 

—Melissa Heikkilä

2. Generative AI’s second wave will be video

It’s amazing how fast the fantastic becomes familiar. The first generative models to produce photorealistic images exploded into the mainstream in 2022—and soon became commonplace. Tools like OpenAI’s DALL-E, Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion, and Adobe’s Firefly flooded the internet with jaw-dropping images of everything from the pope in Balenciaga to prize-winning art. But it’s not all good fun: for every pug waving pompoms, there’s another piece of knock-off fantasy art or sexist sexual stereotyping.

The new frontier is text-to-video. Expect it to take everything that was good, bad, or ugly about text-to-image and supersize it.

It’s no surprise that top studios are taking notice. Movie giants, including Paramount and Disney, are now exploring the use of generative AI throughout their production pipeline. The tech is being used to lip-sync actors’ performances to multiple foreign-language overdubs. And it is reinventing what’s possible with special effects. In 2023, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny starred a de-aged deepfake Harrison Ford. This is just the start.  

Away from the big screen, deepfake tech for marketing or training purposes is taking off too. For example, UK-based Synthesia makes tools that can turn a one-off performance by an actor into an endless stream of deepfake avatars, reciting whatever script you give them at the push of a button. According to the company, its tech is now used by 44% of Fortune 100 companies. 

—Will Douglas Heaven

3. Generative AI’s second wave will be video

If recent elections are anything to go by, AI-generated election disinformation and deepfakes are going to be a huge problem as a record number of people march to the polls in 2024. We’re already seeing politicians weaponizing these tools.

Just a few years ago creating a deepfake would have required advanced technical skills, but generative AI has made it stupidly easy and accessible, and the outputs are looking increasingly realistic.

The coming year will be pivotal for those fighting against the proliferation of such content. Techniques to track and mitigate it content are still in early days of development. Watermarks, such as Google DeepMind’s SynthID, are still mostly voluntary and not completely foolproof. And social media platforms are notoriously slow in taking down misinformation. Get ready for a massive real-time experiment in busting AI-generated fake news. 

—Melissa Heikkilä

4. Robots that multitask

Inspired by some of the core techniques behind generative AI’s current boom, roboticists are starting to build more general-purpose robots that can do a wider range of tasks.

The last few years in AI have seen a shift away from using multiple small models, each trained to do different tasks—identifying images, drawing them, captioning them—toward single, monolithic models trained to do all these things and more. By showing OpenAI’s GPT-3 a few additional examples (known as fine-tuning), researchers can train it to solve coding problems, write movie scripts, pass high school biology exams, and so on. Multimodal models, like GPT-4 and Google DeepMind’s Gemini, can solve visual tasks as well as linguistic ones.

The same approach can work for robots, so it wouldn’t be necessary to train one to flip pancakes and another to open doors: a one-size-fits-all model could give robots the ability to multitask. Several examples of work in this area emerged in 2023.

The problem is a lack of data. Generative AI draws on an internet-size data set of text and images. In comparison, robots have very few good sources of data to help them learn how to do many of the industrial or domestic tasks we want them to.

Lerrel Pinto at New York University leads one team addressing that. He and his colleagues are developing techniques that let robots learn by trial and error, coming up with their own training data as they go. In an even more low-key project, Pinto has recruited volunteers to collect video data from around their homes using an iPhone camera mounted to a trash picker. Big companies have also started to release large data sets for training robots in the last couple of years, such as Meta’s Ego4D.

This approach is already showing promise in driverless cars. Startups such as Wayve, Waabi, and Ghost are pioneering a new wave of self-driving AI that uses a single large model to control a vehicle rather than multiple smaller models to control specific driving tasks. This has let small companies catch up with giants like Cruise and Waymo. Wayve is now testing its driverless cars on the narrow, busy streets of London. Robots everywhere are set to get a similar boost.

—Will Douglas Heaven

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of overwrite.ai and its owners.

This story has been published from an article in MIT Technology published on January 2024.

For informative news and views on the world of real estate, proptech and AI, follow overwrite on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog

overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined

Challenges & Dangers of AI Generated Fake news

by Mariam El Hadary

Join Ayman Alashkar as he discusses the imminent challenges and dangers posed by AI generated fake news on Dubai Eye 103.8

Can We Spot the Difference Between Bias and Fake News?

Ayman delves into the challenge of distinguishing biased news from fake news. “Our biases shape the news we consume, creating a reciprocal loop with AI until we train ourselves to recognize and ignore it,” Ayman Alashkar said.

Navigating the Impact: the Struggle to Identify Fake News

How will inexperienced individuals handle the rise of AI-generated fake news? Ayman foresees a shift as the perception evolves from ‘I can figure it out’ to a realization that even the savvy can be fooled. The generational gap in media consumption plays a crucial role, with the older generation vulnerable and the younger more adept.

Brace for Impact: The Shifting Landscape of Misinformation

As AI becomes more convincing, the impact on everyone is imminent. Are we heading toward a future where distinguishing fake from real becomes an everyday challenge? Is it time to fact check everything that crosses our screens? 🧐

For the full conversation…

Click Here!

For informative news and views on the world of real estate, proptech and AI, follow overwrite on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog

About overwrite.ai

overwrite.ai is a multi-product deep-tech startup that develops proprietary Artificial Intelligence solutions to address inefficiencies in the MENA region’s massive +$3 trillion real estate economy.

overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined

Tips & Tricks to Close More Deals in 2024

by Mariam El Hadary

Join Jodie Cordell, one of the leading estate agents in the USA on a journey through the essentials of lead conversion.

Sharing her effective strategy that, as a solo agent led to closing an average of one deal per month. Stay tuned for valuable tips to scale your business.

Stages of Lead Conversion: Understanding the Buyer’s Journey

It’s important to understand the way your buyers and sellers think when they’re making any kind of purchasing decision. When you understand the psychology and the process that every person’s brain travels, it helps you understand your role in that decision-making process. 

  • Awareness: In this first awareness stage, your lead learns about you and the services you provide, but may not be in the market for your services at this time. 
  • Consideration: If you continue building a relationship with that lead, they will eventually enter into the consideration phase, where they will weigh whether or not they need your services. 
  • Decision: Once your lead has considered all their options, they will enter the decision phase, where they will determine whether your services are right for them. 
  • Loyalty: Finally, there’s the phase where many agents fall off—to their detriment. The loyalty phase is where satisfied past clients share you with all of their sphere. They become your evangelists, telling everyone they know how amazing you are. These people end up being a huge source of referrals that can sustain your business for years. You can’t neglect this phase if you want your business to boom.

Every single person who ever makes any kind of purchase goes through the buyer’s journey. From choosing that tube of lipstick to investing in real estate, the length of time may be different, but the mind mapping is the same.

Conversion Strategies for Common Lead Types

You will need to tailor your approach to each lead type to get the most bang for your buck.

Tips to Convert Internet Leads

  • Maintain a consistent presence on your social media, blog, YouTube, etc. 
  • Encourage engagement with polls, quizzes, and questions for your audience to answer.
  • Make sure you understand that the goal is to build your relationship, not just talk about real estate. Make them like you by sharing your everyday life.
  • Anticipate and answer their questions.
  • Always include a call to action (CTA) in your online content.

Tips to Convert Paid Leads

  • Make sure your system immediately sets the lead up on an appropriate lead nurturing campaign.
  • Use chatbots to ask and answer questions on your behalf and prequalify the leads when you can’t answer your phone.
  • Try to reach out via phone, text, and email. Your lead will most likely respond to text messages and engage with a chatbot.  
  • Don’t stop reaching out to the lead. It will likely take multiple attempts before they will make a buying decision. If you stop too soon, you will lose the lead to another agent.
Dive deeper for additional insights – keep reading!

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of overwrite.ai and its owners.

This story has been published from an article in The Close published on November 2023.

For informative news and views on the world of real estate, proptech and AI, follow overwrite on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog

overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined

Europe Agrees Landmark AI Regulation Deal

by Mariam El Hadary

With the political agreement, the EU moves toward becoming the first major world power to enact laws governing AI. Friday’s deal between EU countries and European Parliament members came after nearly 15 hours of negotiations that followed an almost 24-hour debate the previous day.

The two sides are set to hash out details in the coming days, which could change the shape of the final legislation.

“Europe has positioned itself as a pioneer, understanding the importance of its role as a global standard setter. This is yes, I believe, a historical day,” European Commissioner Thierry Breton told a press conference.

The accord requires foundation models such as ChatGPT and general purpose AI systems (GPAI) to comply with transparency obligations before they are put on the market. These include drawing up technical documentation, complying with EU copyright law and disseminating detailed summaries about the content used for training.

High-impact foundation models with systemic risk will have to conduct model evaluations, assess and mitigate systemic risks, conduct adversarial testing, report to the European Commission on serious incidents, ensure cybersecurity and report on their energy efficiency.

GPAIs with systemic risk may rely on codes of practice to comply with the new regulation.

Governments can only use real-time biometric surveillance in public spaces in cases of victims of certain crimes, prevention of genuine, present, or foreseeable threats, such as terrorist attacks, and searches for people suspected of the most serious crimes.

The agreement bans cognitive behavioural manipulation, the untargeted scrapping of facial images from the internet or CCTV footage, social scoring and biometric categorisation systems to infer political, religious, philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation and race.

Consumers would have the right to launch complaints and receive meaningful explanations while fines for violations would range from 7.5 million euros ($8.1 million) or 1.5% of turnover to 35 million euros or 7% of global turnover.

“We have a deal, but at what cost? We fully supported a risk-based approach based on the uses of AI, not the technology itself, but the last-minute attempt to regulate foundation models has turned this on its head,” its Director General Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl said.

Privacy rights group European Digital Rights was equally critical.

“It’s hard to be excited about a law which has, for the first time in the EU, taken steps to legalise live public facial recognition across the bloc,” its senior policy advisor Ella Jakubowska said.

“Whilst the Parliament fought hard to limit the damage, the overall package on biometric surveillance and profiling is at best lukewarm.”

The legislation is expected to enter into force early next year once both sides formally ratify it and should apply two years after that.

Governments around the world are seeking to balance the advantages of the technology, which can engage in human-like conversations, answer questions and write computer code, against the need to put guardrails in place.

Europe’s ambitious AI rules come as companies like OpenAI, in which Microsoft (MSFT.O) is an investor, continue to discover new uses for their technology, triggering both plaudits and concerns. Google owner Alphabet (GOOGL.O) on Thursday launched a new AI model, Gemini, to rival OpenAI.

The EU law could become the blueprint for other governments and an alternative to the United States’ light-touch approach and China’s interim rules.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of overwrite.ai and its owners.

This story has been published from an article in Reuters published on Dec 2023.

For informative news and views on the world of real estate, proptech and AI, follow overwrite on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog

About overwrite.ai

overwrite.ai is a multi-product deep-tech startup that develops proprietary Artificial Intelligence solutions to address inefficiencies in the MENA region’s massive +$3 trillion real estate economy.

overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined

A Founder’s Game is Never Over

by Mariam El Hadary

A year ago we were written off by everyone. Fast forward 12 months, and we’ve smashed another record.

This past month, our real estate users generated over 10K new property listings using overwrite.ai 📈

So today when you browse any of the UAE’s leading property portals, you’re seeing thousands of adverts written by our GenerativeAI engine.

We’re banging out content to an industry that just can’t get enough of it.

The interesting part is that we’re not a gpt-wrapper app.

You see, we built our Language Model from scratch in 2021. Proprietary. And Bootstrapped.

When ChatGPT took the world by storm in November ’22, nearly every investor I spoke to expected it to be an existential threat to us.

I had faith in our strategy and our product. But I won’t lie, there were times even my faith was tested. Hard!

You must be thinking, what did we do to get more user engagement now than ever before?

Here’s the funny thing. We did nothing.

We haven’t actually changed anything in our product. Nor have we spent a penny more on customer acquisition.

We just stuck to our core belief. That we’d built a brilliant solution to a genuine problem.

Our Customers agree. So I dedicate this Win to them. And to the 24SIX9 Founders Community of Soldiers that have helped me keep the faith.

For informative news and views on the world of real estate, proptech and AI, follow overwrite on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog

About overwrite.ai

overwrite.ai is a multi-product deep-tech startup that develops proprietary Artificial Intelligence solutions to address inefficiencies in the MENA region’s massive +$3 trillion real estate economy.

overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined

AI Is The Great Equalizer

by Mariam El Hadary

The past few months I’ve been mulling over a series of studies economists have conducted on the value of artificial intelligence in the workplace. How much, they wanted to know, does AI help white-collar professionals do their jobs? The productivity gains they’ve observed are substantial: AI is clearly making us better, faster workers. The numbers have prompted AI optimists to predict an economic boom and AI pessimists to worry about a future of fewer jobs.

The question isn’t how much AI helps out around the office but who it helps — and why.

AI, the studies indicate, is making us more productive in a weird way. It’s not helping everyone get better at their jobs. It’s mostly turbocharging workers who are bad at their jobs, while doing little to aid — or even hindering — those who are already productive to begin with. AI, in other words, is raising overall productivity by narrowing the gap between high performers and low performers. It’s equalizing white-collar work — a vast swath of the economy that has always been predicated on the assumption that some people will inherently be much, much better at their jobs than others.

Before we get into the broader implications of the studies, let’s start by reviewing their findings. Economists looked at the impact of AI in six different areas of work:

Creative writing. Researchers tasked people to write a short story, with and without the help of an AI tool for generating ideas. Those who had no spark of their own became as much as 11% more novel and 23% more enjoyable with the help of AI. But the tool didn’t benefit those who were already creative on their own.

Office memos. Researchers had subjects complete writing tasks that are common in professional jobs — think press releases, short reports, delicate emails. Access to AI made everyone faster, regardless of their skill level, by an average of 37%. But when it came to the quality of their writing, AI mostly helped the low performers.

Coding. Software engineers with fewer years of professional coding experience benefited much more from access to GitHub Copilot, an AI coding assistant, than veteran coders did.

Management consulting. Researchers graded professional consultants on18 knowledge-intensive tasks similar to what they actually do in their jobs. Access to GPT-4 boosted the scores of low performers by 43%, compared with only 17% for high performers.

Law school. Researchers administered an exam to law students with and without GPT-4. Students at the bottom of the class got a big performance boost. But access to the tool actually hurt the grades of the students at the top of their class.

Call-center work. Researchers measured the effects of a tailored AI tool that was introduced at a real call center. Novice and low-skilled workers became 34% more productive, while those with more experience and skill saw few benefits. Access to AI even slightly hindered the top performers on some measures, like conversation quality.

Adding to the Economists list is  overwrite.ai. Real estate agents can now significantly improve their efficiency by adopting generative AI. Using overwrite.ai to create property listing descriptions, means real estate agents can focus on higher value tasks, (such as closing deals), instead of time-consuming admin tasks.

So yes, AI boosts productivity in a wide variety of common office tasks, from repetitive work in low-paying call centers to complicated duties at elite management firms. And though most of the studies were hypothetical experiments in a lab — making their findings difficult to extrapolate to the real world — the call-center study looked at actual job performance at an actual company. But it’s how AI increases productivity that should interest us the most. Together, the studies present a strong case that by disproportionately boosting those at the bottom, this new generation of AI tools is narrowing the variation in job performance. In just a few short months, it’s already doing what decades of education have failed to do — it’s equalizing the American workplace.

Continue reading for more insight!

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of overwrite.ai and its owners.

This story has been published from an article in Business Insider published on December 2023.

For informative news and views on the world of real estate, proptech and AI, follow overwrite on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog

About overwrite.ai

overwrite.ai is a multi-product deep-tech startup that develops proprietary Artificial Intelligence solutions to address inefficiencies in the MENA region’s massive +$3 trillion real estate economy.

overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined

Authentic to Hallucinate: 2023’s Words of the Year, AI-inspired

by Mariam El Hadary

In the age of deepfakes, identity crises and Elon Musk, Merriam-Webster Dictionary has announced “authentic” as the Word of the Year for 2023. In its announcement, Merriam-Webster said the word reflects what “we’re thinking about, writing about, aspiring to, and judging more than ever”.

The word “authentic” saw high-volume lookup in 2023 on the back of rising stories and conversations about celebrity culture, identity and social media, it said. Many celebrities, including Taylor Swift and Sam Smith, made headlines with their statements about seeking the “authentic self” and “authentic voice”.

However, the most significant bit in the announcement came in the fifth para, signalling the role of a technological breakthrough that has quickly become ubiquitous – artificial intelligence.

“And with the rise of artificial intelligence—and its impact on deepfake videos, actors’ contracts, academic honesty, and a vast number of other topics — the line between ‘real’ and ‘fake’ has become increasingly blurred,” the announcement read.

The latest entrant into the Word of the Year list speaks of the times we are in, with AI taking centre stage in newsrooms, boardrooms and, well, in pretty much all rooms.

Earlier this year, the Cambridge Dictionary announced “hallucinate” as its Word of the Year 2023. The announcement was followed by the tagline, “When an artificial intelligence hallucinates, it produces false information.”

In a recent feature in Wamda, Ayman Alashkar, the Founder and CEO of overwrite.ai, a leading AI development startup in Dubai, shares insights about Hallucinations and AI. 

“Hallucination is when Large Language Models make things up in order to deliver output, whether accurate or not. In use cases where high accuracy is necessary, LLMs that are output-oriented will, over time, prove inferior to their domain-specific alternatives that prioritise outcomes over output.”

Another lexicon, Collins English Dictionary, went a step further and announced “AI” as its Word of the Year 2023. The announcement said that the use of the word (strictly an initialism) has quadrupled over the past year.

One of the words that “authentic” beat to emerge as a winner was “deepfake”. According to Merriam-Webster, the interest around the word spiked after Musk’s lawyers in a Tesla lawsuit said he is often the subject of deepfake videos and again after the likeness of Ryan Reynolds appeared in a fake, AI-generated Tesla ad.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of overwrite.ai and its owners.

This story has been published from an article in Business Standard published on November 2023.

For informative news and views on the world of real estate, proptech and AI, follow overwrite on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog

About overwrite.ai

overwrite.ai is a multi-product deep-tech startup that develops proprietary Artificial Intelligence solutions to address inefficiencies in the MENA region’s massive +$3 trillion real estate economy.

overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined

Exploring the Unlikely (AI) Connections

by Mariam El Hadary

Ever wondered about the challenges of regulating AI and predicting its impact on humanity? It’s a tough nut to crack, and some have chosen not to even try. 

Uncover the secrets as Ayman Alashkar, CEO and Founder of overwrite.ai discuss AI Regulation with Zeena Zalamea and Sonal Rupani on Dubai Eye 103.8. 🎙️

EU AI Act: Germany, France and Italy reach agreement on the future of AI regulation in Europe | Euronews By Reuters

Germany’s Economy Ministry, which is in charge of the topic together with the Ministry of Digital Affairs, said laws and state control should not regulate AI itself, but rather its application.

Digital Affairs Minister Volker Wissing told Reuters he was very pleased an agreement had been reached with France and Germany to only limit the use of AI.

“We need to regulate the applications and not the technology if we want to play in the top AI league worldwide,” Wissing said.

France, Germany & Italy believe the new AI rules should be binding for everyone

Initially, no sanctions should be imposed, according to the joint paper.

However, if violations of the code of conduct are identified after a certain period of time, a system of sanctions could be set up.

Read More…
GenZ Takes Charge: Unveiling Simple Hacks against DeepFake and Gen AI

Discover the tactics Gen Zers are using to protect their identity from BigTech in Ayman’s discussion with Zeena Zalamea and Sonal Rupani on Dubai Eye 103.8’s “The Reboot.” 🎙️

Watch now to learn how the next generation is steering clear of Artificial Intelligence pitfalls  👀🔐

Curious about what GenerationZ is doing to protect themselves from BigTech? Watch Now

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of overwrite.ai and its owners.

This story has been published from an article in euronews published on November 2023.

For informative news and views on the world of real estate, proptech and AI, follow overwrite on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog

About overwrite.ai

overwrite.ai is a pioneering, purpose-built real estate AI, creating engagement-oriented content for the real estate industry. overwrite.ai creates the marketing content that powers the real estate industries of the UAE, KSA, Egypt and Lebanon.

overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined

Top 10 Roadblocks for the Real Estate Market in 2024

by Mariam El Hadary

Here are the top issues affecting real estate over the next year, according to CRE’s list.

“Additionally, the housing shortage and infrastructure issues continue to cause disruption.

This next year will be crucial to real estate. All eyes are on the future as we navigate these disruptions with a purpose for developing solutions.”

Each year, CRE surveys 1,000 real estate experts to gauge the emerging issues that could have the most significant impact on all housing sectors, particularly the commercial market.

“This past year has been challenging for some and opportunistic for others as the economy, office market and innovation continue to evolve and impact the market,” says CRE Global Chair William McCarthy.

Political unrest and the global economy. 

  • The real estate market is facing a turbulent economy and sagging office sector, which are exacerbated by inflation, slowing GDP growth, high interest rates, bank stress and rising geopolitical concerns involving Russia, China and elsewhere. “We still have mixed macroeconomic signals in the economy, which contributes to an overarching uncertainty on where things are headed,” the CRE report cautions. Still, these risks “don’t necessarily mean the sky is falling. However, it is critical to face the realities of the risks as real estate industry participants navigate key decisions and evaluate strategies.” The report calls for a micro-focused lens on the local landscape, since opportunities could vary tremendously from market to market.

The influence of hybrid work. 

  • Employers are recognizing that office space needs to become “destination-worthy” to bring workers back. This may even include hosting special events with food trucks that coincide with in-office days or creating patios and outdoor seating to help with employee retention. “If that property doesn’t check the box in some critical way—location, access, convenience, tenant amenities or even an amazing view—those owners need to start thinking about alternative strategies,” the report notes. In some cases, this could mean exploring reuse of obsolete office buildings as conversions into residential units, senior housing, health care facilities or hotels.

The housing shortage. 

  • The U.S. continues to face severe housing shortages, which has been pinned on decades of underbuilding. Research from the National Association of REALTORS® and Rosen Consulting put the housing deficit at 5.5 million units. Higher interest rates and ballooning construction costs are complicating calls for more multifamily units. The market for single-family homes also is facing higher costs. “The imbalance between supply and demand has contributed to a huge run-up in home prices in recent years, although pricing has started to stabilize—and even decline—in some markets,” the report notes. “Access to affordable housing has huge implications for real estate investors, economic growth, healthy communities and the need for people to live somewhere.”

Artificial intelligence. 

  • Access to real-time data, improved analytics and forecasting has become critical to investors as they weigh which properties they want to acquire, sell or hold. Artificial intelligence is helping to deliver that data, and recent advancements, including the much-hyped ChatGPT, are being applied to real estate. “The big innovations in commercial real estate will come not from ChatGPT but from the large number of proptech start-ups that are reimagining the idea of data collection,” the CRE report notes. “They’re incorporating mind-boggling amounts of data, and they’re adopting probabilistic frameworks to think about the future.”

The labor shortage. 

  • Finding skilled workers remains a challenge for numerous industries. The labor shortage has grown for a couple of reasons: an aging population of baby boomers who left the workforce in what became known as the “Great Resignation,” and new employment trends emerged among young professionals with unique views about the workplace. “The labor market has significant downstream implications for real estate,” the report notes. “Jobs drive demand for real estate, and populations also shift to where jobs are located.” Younger generations are choosing their lifestyle first and their job second—a reversal from previous generations. This is forcing employers to take note of migration shifts. Also, young professionals are showing a preference for entrepreneurship and remote or contract work.
The Counselors of Real Estate releases its annual list 
of top industry issues for 2024.

Migration. 

  • Housing affordability has been a prime reason for migration shifts away from urban areas, particularly on the West Coast and in the Northeast, the report notes. U-Haul’s Growth Index shows the top cities for inbound moves over the year are in more affordable places like Ocala, Fla.; Auburn, Ala.; Surprise, Ariz.; Madison, Wis.; and Myrtle Beach, S.C. Businesses are following the migration patterns and relocating from high-cost states to the Sun Belt region or interior parts of the country. “That shift has significant implications for the real estate industry in terms of growth opportunities, as well as the challenges ahead for property valuations, surplus space and obsolescence created in areas where populations are declining,” the CRE report notes.

Real estate Armageddon.

  • The economy, interest rates and inflation are making up what the report warns is a “real estate Armageddon.” The Federal Reserve’s funds rate is at its highest level since 2007 after a series of rate hikes over the past year. Owners, investors and developers across commercial real estate markets are feeling the effects of higher capital costs, tightened lending and the looming $1.5 trillion U.S. debt that is to mature by the end of 2025. Further, rising interest rates and high prices are shaking up both commercial and residential real estate markets, contributing to a decline in transaction activity. Urban economies may be at particular risk. “We are still in the throes of the late COVID era, and the disruption on major urban economies has yet to run its course,” the report cautions.

Supply chain, logistics and U.S. onshoring. 

  • The pandemic uncovered supply chain shortfalls, and companies are now reworking supply chain routes that once relied heavily on the West Coast. “The heart of America’s logistics infrastructure lies in the Golden Triangle,” the report notes, highlighting the interior section of the country that runs from the Great Lakes down to Texas and over to the mid-Atlantic. Charleston, S.C., is now the fastest-growing port in the country. “The remaking of supply chains coincides with a reshoring boom of manufacturing, and much of that growth is again focusing on the interior and southern states,” the report notes. The key drivers for new supply chain meccas are affordability, access to a growing workforce and logistics infrastructure, such as access to rail, roads and ports. This shift is creating “massive growth” and ushering in a “new e-commerce era” that is less reliant on urban areas.

Pricing reset.

  • As costs for capital increases, cap rates and property values tend to decrease. However, the pricing reset the market has been waiting for has been slow to materialize, CRE notes in its report. “A key hurdle is that buyers and sellers are still in a standoff. Sellers are holding out for values at or close to what was achievable prior to the interest rate explosion. Meanwhile, buyers believe values are much lower based on higher capital costs.” Repricing, however, could have major implications on commercial real estate and financial markets and will continue to play out in the second half of 2023 and into 2024, the report says.

America’s aging infrastructure.

  • The costs to repair and upgrade the nation’s aging infrastructure remains a concern. There’s money to help: $1.2 trillion in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and $783 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act. But CRE says it also creates an opportunity to rethink what types of infrastructure are needed. For example, the report notes: “Do you spend $5 billion to upgrade one regional power plant, or do you spend that $5 billion to build 20 smaller-scale decentralized power facilities? Those smaller facilities could be customized to generate power from alternative sources, whether it is solar, wind or waste, to energy, as well as change the way power is delivered.” The report also calls for local governments, cities, counties, private corporations, nonprofits, foundations and other associations to work together in helping to develop a new line of thinking about infrastructure at the local level that can support future population and economic growth.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of overwrite.ai and its owners.

 Melissa Dittmann Tracey writes for REALTOR® Magazine

This story has been published from an article in Realtor Magazine published on November 2023.

For informative news and views on the world of real estate, proptech and AI, follow overwrite on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog

About overwrite.ai

overwrite.ai is a pioneering, purpose-built real estate AI, creating engagement-oriented content for the real estate industry. overwrite.ai creates the marketing content that powers the real estate industries of the UAE, KSA, Egypt and Lebanon.

overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined

Artificial Intelligence for Real Estate Agents – ‘What’s it AI about?!’

by Charlotte C.

Golden Nuggets Podcast: uncovering TOP 10 real estate ‘AI Tools’ Countdown 🛠️ | Feat. Ayman Alashkar, CEO and Founder of overwrite.ai

Take a deep dive into latest trends, benefits, and considerations of integrating AI into your real estate practice.

Courtesy of Propologi‘s latest podcast, hear how proptech can solve those niggling pain-points for estate agents, what AI CAN’T do, and how it can level up your real estate game.

Industry expert, ‘Golden Nuggets’ Host and Propologi Founder, Silvia Eldawi brings you the low down on AI for property agents in her latest podcast with overwrite.ai’s Founder and CEO Ayman Alashkar.

Listen in as Silvia quizzes Ayman on “Artificial Intelligence for Real Estate Agents” posing the question: “What’s it AI about?”…

The episode reveals the latest trends, benefits, and considerations of integrating AI into your real estate practice.

Hear Silvia and Ayman uncover golden nuggets on:

  • The top 10 AI tools you can use today
  • How far should you use and trust ChatGPT?
  • Focusing on higher value tasks
  • The downsides and pitfalls of AI
  • Latest AI trends, benefits, and considerations

Propologi is a UAE real estate startup that helps agents to “Discover the success sequence to becoming a Property Professional” Through it’s educational platforms, podcasts and other dedicated marketing channels, it offers programs for ambitious and aspiring property professionals.

“Whether you’re a seasoned agent or new to the field, understanding AI’s role in real estate can give you a competitive edge. Our countdown and discussion will equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to transform your strategy and capitalize on AI’s potential.” 

– Propologi Founder, Silvia Eldawi

Ayman Alashkar, talks AI solutions for today’s estate agents

About overwrite.ai

overwrite.ai is a pioneering, purpose-built real estate AI, creating engagement-oriented content for the real estate industry. overwrite.ai creates the marketing content that powers the real estate industries of the UAE, KSA, Egypt and Lebanon.

Have you got “Generative AI-nxiety”?

by Charlotte C.

Many CEOs and business owners are feeling pressure to incorporate generative AI into their plans. If the pressure doesn’t come from an industry rival, it often comes from your own board.

Ready or not, be prepared to adopt it carefully, intentionally, and soon! 

BIG DEMAND, BIG BENEFITS

Most companies have already implemented generative AI or are working to do so soon. Tellingly, even organizations in the early stages of maturity are seeing benefits. In fact, 89% of companies currently using generative AI reported seeing either substantial or modest upsides from the technology. 

The three most frequently reported benefits? 

  • Increased market competitiveness (52%)
  • Improved security (49%)
  • Enhanced performance or functionality of their products (45%)

Here are three steps as you put together your generative AI strategy. 

1. Clarify Leadership

What separates companies actively using generative AI from those that can’t seem to get things off the ground? In a word: leadership. Remarkably, 98% of surveyed companies using generative AI today report having a single organizational leader that drove the adoption. 

And while you may tap your CTO or Head of Analytics to oversee the adoption, never underestimate your own importance in making it stick. According to the data leaders in our survey, the most common role responsible for driving generative AI strategy is the CEO. You and the leader you appoint will both play a big part in rollout strategy as well as things like allaying fears and concerns of employees and board members. 

My advice to my fellow CEOs is simple: Empower one leader to take the reins with your generative AI efforts. Give them clear direction, guidance, and support in achieving that goal, and help them build a team with the skills they need to make it a success.   

2. Start Slow 

All the pressure being heaped on CEOs to adopt generative AI may be somewhat warranted, but it can have the unfortunate outcome of causing you to act hastily. Don’t take the bait. Instead, take this process at the right pace and allow yourself to experiment before diving into the deep end. You’ll be glad you did.  

While 36% of surveyed data leaders say their organization is currently using generative AI, just 13% of those leaders rate their maturity as “optimizing” or “innovating.” The remainder rank their generative AI maturity as still in the stages of exploring, experimenting, or formalizing. In other words, there’s still time to catch up. 

If you and your team are feeling like you’re behind the curve, don’t fret but do make sure you are laying the groundwork now. Before you jump in, identify what use cases would make the biggest impact and the most sense in your organization. Some of the most popular use cases named by our respondents include: 

  • Content generation 
  • Analytic insights summary and generation
  • Code development
  • Process documentation 

3. Manage Risk

Are there clear risks to using generative AI? Of course. There are particular concerns around things like data quality and security. But there are enormous upsides, too, and there are tried and true ways to mitigate those risks. 

Some 77% of the board members we surveyed said their organization has policies or guidelines in place to address ethical concerns around generative AI. Likewise, 75% say their organization is currently addressing regulatory or compliance considerations around generative AI. 

Providing organizational guidance is key to mitigating risk. A solid majority of the board members we surveyed said they are already doing this around topics like privacy and security, fairness and bias, trust and transparency, social impact, and accountability. Many organizations are now conducting regular AI audits and establishing clear lines of responsibility for generative AI management in order to ensure proper governance and ethical use. And for organizations that don’t yet have those skills in house, working with trusted vendors can add another layer of security and risk reduction. 

Given the moment we’re in, CEOs are forgiven for feeling a little anxious when the topic of generative AI comes up with their board. But the fact is, if you empower the right people, take your time, and take steps to mitigate risk, you can unlock some serious benefits for your company and turn that anxiety into pure exhilaration.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of overwrite.ai and its owners.

Mark Anderson writes for Fast Company

This story has been published from an article in Fast Company published on 31st October 2023.

For informative news and views on the world of real estate, proptech and AI, follow overwrite on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog.

About overwrite.ai

overwrite.ai is a pioneering, purpose-built real estate AI, creating engagement-oriented content for the real estate industry. overwrite.ai creates the marketing content that powers the real estate industries of the UAE, KSA, Egypt and Lebanon.

overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined

6 Signs of a Bad Real Estate Broker

by Charlotte C.

Bad Real Estate Agents. Unfortunately they’re out there. There are those that lack training. Those with limited experience. Poor local community knowledge. Zero negotiation skills. Pushy sales techniques.

Not every agent is a bad apple. Many are ethical, informed and professional. Genuinely intent on finding the best possible outcome for their clients.

So, what makes a Bad Agent?

We’ve identified some of the common, underhand tactics of bad real estate agents, that you don’t want to be known for:

1. Pumping the Guide Price

An estate agent may initially post a property at a price lower than value, in order to attract offers. Then pump the price up once they have qualified buyers in hand. This practice can backfire on the agent. Rendering their reputation in tatters.

2. Betraying Trust

Home buying is an expensive and emotive affair.It’s therefore inevitable that buyers and sellers will open their hearts to their trusted agents. Estate agents are famously chatty.

Some, will abuse their client’s confidence. Taking information they glean, and using it to their benefit. Much like Karma, that betrayal of trust will come back to haunt them.

Betrayal of trust won’t sit well with a home buyer

3. Creating a Riot

There are people in life who thrive on drama. Granted, it is the estate agent’s job to get the highest price possible for a property. But encouraging a bidding war and gazumping buyers, ultimately hurts all parties involved.

A milder alternative is to invite sealed bids. That prompts buyers to pitch in with their highest possible offer. And the highest offer wins. All’s fair in love and…

4. The Non-Existent Offer

Even more serious than playing buyers off against each other, is the practice of making up non-existent offers to try and persuade bidders to raise their price.

It’s unprofessional, unethical and particularly damaging both financially and emotionally.

Less ethical agents give the profession a bad name

5. False Reassurance on Home Surveys

Misrepresenting a property’s structural or economic condition to a buyer or a tenant, is unfortunately a practice some agents are known for.

Declare any information you have about a property’s condition. Even if that information isn’t favourable to your deal. You may lose the deal, but you will maintain your integrity and win a long-term relationship with your client.

6. The Not-So-Straight Shooter

Sellers will seek multiple opinions on the value of their home, before appointing an agent. Valuing real estate is a combination of both science and art. The price will vary between estate agents.

Some agents will be price bullish to appeal to the seller’s wallet. Some will be price-bearish, in order to lower, and then exceed expectations. Neither are wrong. But there are those agents who knowingly deceive their clients. Avoid being one of them. Be communicative, transparent and ethical in your marketing strategy.

About overwrite.ai

overwrite.ai is a pioneering, purpose-built real estate AI, creating engagement-oriented content for the real estate industry. overwrite.ai creates the marketing content that powers the real estate industries of the UAE, KSA, Egypt and Lebanon.

For informative news and views on the world of real estate, proptech and AI, follow overwrite on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog.

“Jail-breaking” prompts leading GPT-4 astray

by Charlotte C.

Microsoft-affiliated research finds flaws in GPT-4 .

Sometimes, following instructions too precisely can land you in hot water — if you’re a large language model, that is.

That’s the conclusion reached by a new, Microsoft-affiliated scientific paper that looked at the “trustworthiness” — and toxicity — of large language models (LLMs), including OpenAI’s GPT-4 and GPT-3.5, GPT-4’s predecessor.

The co-authors write that, possibly because GPT-4 is more likely to follow the instructions of “jailbreaking” prompts that bypass the model’s built-in safety measures, GPT-4 can be more easily prompted than other LLMs to spout toxic, biased text.

In other words, GPT-4’s good “intentions” and improved comprehension can — in the wrong hands — lead it astray.

“We find that although GPT-4 is usually more trustworthy than GPT-3.5 on standard benchmarks, GPT-4 is more vulnerable given jailbreaking system or user prompts, which are maliciously designed to bypass the security measures of LLMs, potentially because GPT-4 follows (misleading) instructions more precisely,” the co-authors wrote in a blog post accompanying the paper.

New research suggests that GPT-4 can be more easily prompted 
than other LLMs to spout toxic, biased text.

Now, why would Microsoft greenlight research that casts an OpenAI product it itself uses (GPT-4 powers Microsoft’s Bing Chat chatbot) in a poor light? 

To find out more and read the full article, click here

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of overwrite.ai and its owners.

 Kyle Wigger writes for TechCrunch.

This story has been published from an article published on Tech Crunch in October 2023.

For informative news and views on the world of real estate, proptech and AI, follow overwrite on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog.

overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined

Tower-top Stunts Caught on Camera in the UAE

by Charlotte C.

See the slickest Dubai high-rise stunts!

The UAE has always had that ‘dare to dream big’ philosophy at the core of its development. 

It’s translated into some pretty large buildings — World Record-clinching ones no less, and as something of a side effect, it’s also spawned a rare breed of adventurers with an absolutely massive set of ambitions. 

We’ve rounded up some of the most wild real life and big screen, sweaty-palmed, cloud-bothering, tower-top stunts to have ever been caught on camera in the UAE.

Emirates cabin crew stands on top of the Burj Khalifa
Emirati skater, Zahra Lari, skates on top of ‘The View at the Palm’
Sheikh Hamdan enjoys a coffee on top of Ain Dubai

Click here to see some of the slickest Dubai high-rise stunts as featured in What’s On uae

About overwrite.ai

overwrite.ai is a pioneering, purpose-built real estate AI, creating engagement-oriented content for the real estate industry. overwrite.ai creates the marketing content that powers the real estate industries of the UAE, KSA, Egypt and Lebanon.

For informative news and views on the world of real estate, proptech and AI, follow overwrite on Instagram and LinkedIn, and keep up-to-date with our weekly NewsBites blog.