New York City is sinking under the massive weight of its skyscrapers.
New research has revealed that the combination of massive skyscrapers and a rising sea level could make the city more prone to natural disasters.
However, researchers said developers are not taking the risk of rising waters seriously enough, and this could spell trouble for the over 8 million residents of the city in the future.
A team at the University of Rhode Island took on the daunting task of estimating the total weight of the more than 1 million buildings that make up New York City. They found that almost 1 trillion kg of concrete, steel and glass are pushing down the ground, causing it to slowly sink lower towards sea level.
HOW FAST IS NYC SINKING?
The famed eight-block-long Wall Street in the financial heart of New York is just 1 to 2m above sea level. Midtown Manhattan is built on rock, which compresses very little. However, Brooklyn and Queens have looser soil, which causes the sinking to happen faster.
Fears for a slowly sinking city
Parts of Lower Manhattan were artificially expanded by land reclamation near the coastline, making the ground more vulnerable to gravitational forces from the weight of the buildings because it is not as compact as natural landscape.
As a result, some of the land there is sinking twice as fast, at a rate of up to 4mm per year.
POLICIES NEED TO CHANGE
Researchers said that while it is not yet an emergency, they want to provide the science to help with future planning.
“This is where the policy comes into play. This is where we have the responsibility to integrate this data, this science, with other science and climate science, and talk about the impacts.”
– Mr Andrew Kruczkiewicz, a senior researcher at Columbia University’s Climate School
However, construction is showing no signs of stopping.
The same waterfront areas that bore the brunt of the devastation from Hurricane Sandy and the more recent flash floods have seen some of the highest rates of new housing developments.
New York Floods after Hurricane Sandy
The city, which has some of the most expensive land in the United States, stands to lose a lot as rising seas continue to erode the shore, said observers.
A CITY WITH A LOT AT STAKE
“In the New York area, as we project to 2050, the amount approaches US$1 billion.This is not the retail value of land but the tax-assessed value. This value supports property taxes and all of the municipal services dependent on those.” – Peter Girard, vice president of communicationsresearch organisation, Climate Central
The city ranks third in the world in terms of the value of real estate assets exposed to coastal flooding, after Guangzhou and Miami.
This could mean big losses for owners and investors if natural disasters hit.
Seed any talented, experienced Founder with $1Billion at day zero of their mission, and they’re likely to deliver something seismically impressive 7 years later.
And so it goes with Sam Altman. When ChatGPT dropped, it went viral. Spellbinding 100 million people in less than 2 months.
Looking past the headlines, what I find fascinating is the direction OpenAI took in allowing ChatGPT’s Users free-form prompt entry.
Free-form entry is when your computer interface allows you to write (or draw) inputs freely.
In a Generative AI input context, it’s equivalent to handing over the keys of every car in your dealership to prospective buyers for a test drive without a shred of identification or collateral from them, and hoping they return.
It’s a big risk. Because you simply don’t know what they’re going to do.
Sam & Co. took that risk. Letting their users write anything that occurred to them, and trusting that the system they’d built would be able to generate some kind of response. Kudos to them.
Truth Be Damned.
But there’s a little secret that swooning media headlines don’t speak of.
Aside from enormous capital resources, Sam had another luxury afforded to him. That the degree of accuracy of ChatGPT’s responses, wasn’t a priority.
Safe in the knowledge that improvement in accuracy would come with later iterations of their GPT framework, what mattered more was that ChatGPT generate a response. Any response would do, so long as it were contextually and syntactically correct. Even if it weren’t entirely true.
In other words the priority for ChatGPT was to be output-oriented, and that accuracy would be improved down the line.
Software As A Service. Accuracy As An Obsession.
There are less funded Founders that do not have such resources and the learning curve it affords.
I’m one of them.
Having set out in 2019 to develop a themed language model, we were cognisant of the need to deliver accurate output, or else we’d fail to launch.
Our entire focus became outcome-oriented. We needed to ensure that our Generative AI would deliver content of value specific to our target Users’ use case.
Overwrite.ai is a real estate themed language model.
Written in a combination of languages, overwrite is trained through reinforcement learning and rule-based action, using a proprietary corpus of over 2Billion scale parameters to generate syntactically, contextually and factually correct real estate marketing content.
Used by the real estate industry to instantly generate unique and engaging property listings. Content that can neither be generic nor factually misleading, for search optimisation and legal reasons respectively.
People are increasingly understanding the value of Generative AI accuracy.
Input First. Output After. Sounds Easy Enough.
To deliver that absolute accuracy, we needed to guide our Users through the input process. We couldn’t expect them to know what to prompt the system with. How could they? Before ChatGPT’s release the very concepts of Generative AI and Prompt Engineering were known only to those within the industry. Certainly not to our real estate marketing audience.
So we developed a prompt input system of our own. One that takes Users through a dynamically responsive journey. Meandering. Adapting prompts and predicting inputs as it goes. Never risking human error, insufficient inputs or hallucinatory outcomes.
We knew at the time that consumer-friendly prompt engineering would one day become critical to the widespread adoption of AI tools. (Fun Fact: Today Prompt Engineer. salaries are reaching $400K)
That meant finding the Goldilocks Zone between the AI science, and the very human art of communication.
Designed for specific use cases, Themed Language Models like overwrite do not need to be all things for all people. They can be fit-for-purpose more cost-effectively, and user-efficiently than their large language model cousins. Now that frameworks make generative AI model development easy and fast for enterprises; developers must remember to strike that UX balance between what’s good enough for them, and what’s expected from their Users.
Ayman is recognised as one of MENA’s leading Generative AI pioneers.
He is the Founder and CEO of overwrite.ai, the MENA region’s pioneering Real Estate Themed Generative AI, an NVIDIA Inception Program partner.
With +20years of corporate and entrepreneurial experience, he regularly features on thought leadership panels, blogs, vlogs and radio segments, sharing his often inspirational opinions about Artificial Intelligence and entrepreneurship.
overwrite.ai is a pioneering Themed Generative AI, creating engagement-oriented content for the real estate industry.
We create 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.
overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined.
This statement could almost certainly claim the title of most overused real estate one-liner ever!
Describing a new listing as ‘Arguably the best deal on the market’: Real Estate agents just can’t get enough of it.
We’re not saying it’s completely off-limits. But when you really want your property listing to work for you, you’ve got to stand out from the crowd.
You need to Boss-Level your listing content.
“Definition of Luxury”
“One of a kind”
“Arguably the best”
They’re all so… Meh! While fly-through videos and professional imagery is attractive, remember one fact. You can’t publish a listing with videos and images alone.
Harness the power of words
Words have power. Their meaning crystallizes perceptions that shape our beliefs, drive our behaviour, and ultimately, create our world. Their power arises from our emotional responses when we read, speak, or hear them.
Harness that power.
Grab your audience’s attention and don’t let go. Make them want you to tell them more about your property.
But what if you can never seem to find the right words to describe your dream listing. What they call ‘writer’s block’. What if English isn’t your strong point?
A killer script will prompt them to make an offer
That’s why agents all over the world are using generative AI to do this job for them. And overwrite.ai is powered by a database of over 70,000 entries. Trending words, phrases, and descriptive prose. The cream of the crop of real estate lexicon. All so that you can publish engaging and search optimised listing descriptions that will set you apart from the rest.
Generative AI pioneer, Ayman Alashkar, Founder and CEO of overwrite.ai
“Rather than go with a generic ai tool that can often make things up, termed ‘AI Hallucination’, professionals are increasingly opting for specialised AI tools that are powered with local data. overwrite’s “language” has been built entirely on real estate themed content, setting it apart from the likes of chatGPT.” – Ayman Alashkar, Founder and CEO, overwrite.ai
About overwrite.ai
overwrite.ai is a pioneering Generative AI, creating engagement-oriented content for the real estate industry.
We create 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.
overwrite.ai | real estate content creation, reimagined.
A McKinsey survey finds that there’s still a lot needed for the GCC to fully unlock AI’s potential.
If you have followed the recent news of NVIDIA, the world’s largest chipmaker, witnessing skyrocketing stock share due to the AI hype, you might have a good idea of how much money is lying in AI and the industries supporting it.
The craze is sweeping all across the globe, and the Middle East’s Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is no exception.
AI adoption highest in Retail / consumer-packaged goods sector. Source: Wired.me
AI’s Potential to Deliver
A survey conducted by McKinsey in partnership with GCC Board Directors Institute estimates that AI has the potential to deliver as much as $150 billion in the region, which is equivalent to 9 percent or more of GCC countries’ combined GDP.
The survey shows that 62 percent of the respondents from five main sectors across all six GCC counties are using AI in at least one business function. However, it is merely scratching the surface of AI’s potential.
Leveraging AI models from A-Z
AI adoption is currently low in several areas despite the significant potential.
For instance, companies in the energy and materials sector haven’t fully leveraged machine learning models to optimize their processes from start to finish.
Retail companies in the GCC have made more progress, with 75 percent reporting the use of AI. But even in the most widely applied area, marketing and sales, only one-third of respondents reported using AI.
Obstacles to AI adoption
According to McKinsey, companies that generate at least an additional 20 percent of their earnings from AI compared to others are considered high-performing.
But the truth is, there are several obstacles that companies face in adopting AI. These obstacles include the lack of data and technology infrastructure, regulatory challenges, and the perception of AI as an expensive investment.
In the GCC region, only 30 percent of companies have a well-defined AI strategy or the necessary talent to implement it. And only 35 percent have the required infrastructure and architecture to support AI, and 25 percent have an effective change management program in place.
So how can companies and regulators accelerate the adoption of AI and fully profit from AI?
McKinsey suggests that the key areas where companies need to focus include strategy, talent development, data infrastructure, and scaling AI adoption.
Tackling key challenges to accelerate AI adoption. Source: Wired.me
With the significant amount of attention, money, and potential in AI, it is crucial for regulators, companies, and other entities to speed up the adoption of AI in an efficient and effective manner.
About overwrite.ai
overwrite.ai is a pioneering Themed Generative AI, creating engagement-oriented content for the real estate industry.
We create 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.
overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined.
Would you order an AI generated pizza? If you’re a Pizza lover in Dubai, now you can…
Chefs in Dubai are now using Generative AI to refine their recipes. To mark the launch of its new restaurant, a Dubai pizzeria has added a new pizza topping to its menu. And it’s been created using generative AI.
Jumping on the global AI hype-cycle, and inspired by the Gen AI trend, the pizza chef asked ChatGPT to create the recipe.
Using the prompt “pizza for Dubai customers”, it produced a recipe that featured “lamb kofta on a thin dough, with a sauce made of tahini and sumac.”
Localised AI
The pizza is inspired by the Shawarma – a popular snack enjoyed by Emiratis and local residents across the UAE.
However the chef did have to make some tweaks to the ChatGPT recipe.
According to an interview in The National, he switched lamb for chicken and added some other local spices, making it more authentic to the region.
ChatGPT also suggested using feta cheese as a topping, but the final product features paneer cheese instead.
This highlights a common fear of just how much we can rely on outputs generated by AI.
“Human oversight is always required when using artificial intelligence, in order to ensure the output is applicablein real world scenarios. We cannot blindly accept everything that generative AI suggests to us.“
The idea is a great viral marketing stunt to generate PR for the restaurant. But it does support the argument that AI wont replace jobs (in this case a chef).
Instead it allows professionals to be more creative, inject fresh ideas into their existing skillset, and save time.
overwrite.ai is a pioneering Themed Generative AI, creating engagement-oriented content for the real estate industry.
We create 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.
overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined.
The UAE government is developing partnerships to drive forward cutting-edge tech solutions powered by artificial intelligence.
Proving the importance of Artificial Intelligence to its’ city, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, met with Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, First Deputy Ruler of Dubai andDeputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the UAE, and UAE Minister of State for AI, Omar Sultan Al Olama.
The UAE regards AI as a significant emerging field, with the leaders addressing new strategies to expand deployment of AI across its government operations.
Sheikh Maktoum discusses the transformative power of generative AI across various domains.
A recent Khaleej Times article reported that Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed affirmed that the UAE government is keen to enhance partnerships with leading global technology companies and strengthen cooperation with techpreneurs.
“He highlighted the remarkable impact of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and the transformative power of generative AI across various domains. He also underscored the unprecedented opportunity to leverage AI-enabled solutions to expedite progress and development across diverse fields.”
Ayman Alashkar, Founder & CEO overwrite.ai, meeting last month with Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama UAE Minister of State for AI
The UAE is creating a nurturing and empowering environment for technology talent.
Start-ups such as overwrite.ai are now being given the platform to flourish, and develop solutions that can drastically improve many industry sectors, such as real estate, across the region, and indeed the world.
Cooperation with techpreneurs
Speaking at a recent AI conference in Dubai, hosted by US world-leading AI tech giant, NVIDIA, about generative AI in the region, Ayman Alashkar of overwrite.ai said:
“Thanks to ChatGPT’s virality, our recognition as generative AI pioneers in the region has grown enormously.The space was far more challengingbefore Sam brought Large Language Models into the mainstream.
Generative AI’s value, whether narrowly applied as with our real estate themed use-case, or taken more holistically, is now more widely understood and appreciated by the MENA startup ecosystem.”
– Ayman Alashkar, Founder and CEO overwrite.ai, June 2023.
overwrite.ai is a pioneering Themed Generative AI, creating engagement-oriented content for the real estate industry.
We create 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.
overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined.
ChatGPT has given scammers an easy way to create convincing fake reviews.
Ask ChatGPT for a list of Airbnb scams, and it will generate a detailed list in a matter of seconds. Ask it to create a list of 10 or more positive reviews for a two-bedroom rental with specific amenities, and it’ll crank those out, too.
And to its credit, those reviews are actually more convincing than a lot of obviously bot-generated views we’ve come across. These are the kind of reviews hosts dream about and potential guests swoon over.
Unfortunately, while customers can use ChatGPT to help them write a positive review, scammers can do the same thing to improve the overall rating for a rental property.
The Positive Review Prompt
Sadly, it’s not hard to create fake customer reviews. AI tools like ChatGPT make this even easier.
Type in a prompt like “Write 10 positive reviews for a two-bedroom rental smart home with a rooftop garden, swimming pool, and chef’s kitchen,” and here are some of the reviews ChatGPT can generate in a matter of seconds:
Fake ChatGPT | Review 1 “The swimming pool was an absolute dream! It was the perfect temperature and so clean. The chef’s kitchen also made cooking meals a breeze, and we loved being able to enjoy them outside on the rooftop patio.”
Fake ChatGPT | Review 2 “We felt like royalty staying in this beautiful rental. The attention to detail was impeccable, and everything was so clean and well-maintained. The rooftop garden was a true oasis, and the swimming pool was the cherry on top.”
Fake ChatGPT | Review 3 “f you’re looking for the ultimate vacation rental, this is it! The smart home technology made everything so easy, and the rooftop garden and swimming pool were the perfect places to unwind and relax.”
Fake ChatGPT | Review 4 “This rental exceeded all our expectations! The smart home technology made everything so easy, and the rooftop garden was the perfect place to relax and enjoy the beautiful views. We couldn’t have asked for a better stay!”
These actually sound more convincing than some of the fake reviews you can easily find on shopping sites like Amazon. Keep that in mind and do some digging in the review section. The negative (and honest) reviews might be buried deep.
One of Many
That’s just one tool a scammer could add to their arsenal to cheat vacationers out of their money. Find out more here.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of overwrite.ai and its owners.
This story has been published from an article in Broke Agent Media (BAM.COM) published May, 2023.
On the same day, Artificial Intelligence had its iPhone moment.
The AI industry declared its Top Dog. And it’s not Sam Altman’s OpenAI.
NVIDIA, a company most people hadn’t heard of, saw its market cap soar by 24% in after-hours trading to open at $940B.
Where others like Facebook’s META have been talking about AI’s profitability potential, NVIDIA proved it. And the market rewarded it in kind.
Its meteoric $184B Market Cap pop in a single day, exceeded the combined values of Walt Disney Co., Netflix, Nike, Boeing, UPS, Verizon, and Adobe.
(Salamu Alaikum. Goodnight. 👊🖐🎤)
On that auspicious 25th May, I found myself with NVIDIA, sharing my thoughts on a panel discussing ‘Entrepreneurship of the Future’ in #Dubai‘s stunning Museum of the Future. The event, organised by them in collaboration with the UAE’s Artificial IntelligenceOffice, was themed around Generative AI’s ability to unlock a new era of startup entrepreneurs.
Since then, NVIDIA’s value has continued to rise. Joining the world’s elite Trillion Dollar Club.
And investors have woken up to the fact that AI is not only a very big deal, but very big business.
Like the old saying goes, when there’s a Gold Rush, it pays best to be in the shovel and spade business.
NVIDIA does precisely that. By making the Graphics Processing Units (GPU’s) that power the voracious processing demands of Artificial Intelligence systems including OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Where Dubai pioneered the transformation of the Middle East into a region the World can not afford to ignore, we pioneered the MENA region’s first proprietary Real Estate Themed Generative Artificial Intelligence.
Being part of NVIDIA’s network is validation of the incredible work the overwrite.ai team have put into developing the AI that creates the property adverts you browse through when searching for a home to buy or rent, online.
‘Unlocking a New Era of Startup Opportunities with Generative AI’ UAE Artificial Intelligence office in collaboration with NVIDIA
Ayman Alashkar, Founder and CEO, overwrite.ai and propchat.ai
All smiles with His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama UAE Minister of State for AI
And as I took to the stage in front of a room packed full with hundreds of aspiring entrepreneurs, I was asked how a startup should harness the power of Artificial Intelligence for growth.
The answer I gave;
Be User-Friendly like Dubai.
Ayman Alashkar | Founder & CEO | overwrite.ai
Dubai is an undisputed Tier 1 Global City. In the 20 years since moving here, I’ve been fortunate to have been part of its story in becoming that.
Whatever your profession, Dubai has made living, working, and investing in it, user-friendly for us all.
Any entrepreneur that’s taking a good idea and using Generative AI to turn it into a startup business, must be obsessed with how user-friendly their solution can be.
Nobody’s got time to learn to use a complex tool.
Less friction equals greater adoption and user retention.
overwrite.ai’s UAE team at the ‘Entrepreneurship of the Future’ event in DubaiAyman Alashkar with fellow panellists and the UAE Minister of State for AI
That same user-friendliness, is baked into overwrite’s ethos.
Its why thousands of real estate agents use overwrite.ai to create their property listings.
And as overwrite.ai continues to grow, I also continue to learn from inspirational leaders in our field, such as the remarkable people at NVIDIA.
Thank you for your time.
overwrite.ai is a pioneering Themed Generative AI, creating engagement-oriented content for the real estate industry.
We create 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.
overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined.
Real Estate Agents Reveal The Must-Have Amenities For Home-Buyers In 2023.
Let’s see which ones topped the luxury home amenities list:
Outdoor Kitchen
They say the kitchen is the heart of the home, but that heart may be moving outside, according to a recent survey of top real estate agents worldwide.
A recent Luxury Agent Poll conducted by Forbes Global Properties revealed that the single-most sought-after home amenity in 2023 is an outdoor kitchen.
While tastes of high-net-worth buyers continuously evolve, outdoor space, proximity to lifestyle amenities and private pools remain among the most-requested features. From brick pizza ovens to barbecue pits to full-on al fresco chef’s kitchens, the outdoor kitchen is a trend that has only grown in the past few years.
Indoor/Outdoor Pools
A regular on top luxury amenities lists, pools have long been a symbol of status and wealth. In warm-weather climates, you’d be hard-pressed to find a luxury new-construction home that doesn’t include a pool.
Pool designs have evolved to include multitiers, hidden grottos and sun shelves. Other popular variations on the traditional pool include saltwater, plunge and jetstream pools for in-place lap swimming.
The highest-caliber homes can even have two pools on the property—one indoor and one outdoor.
Spa Amenities
Another long-standing amenity, the spa highlights not only the extravagance of a home but of a lifestyle. As wellness and self-care continue to become prioritized so, too, have home spas. Often found in the primary bathroom, spa amenities can include soaking tubs, steam showers or movable walls for al fresco bathing.
Whether it’s a property with a massage room or one with a swim spa, a listing featuring spa amenities is sure to catch the eye of affluent homebuyers.
Fitness Centre
Continuing on the trend of wellness, the next popular luxury amenity on our list is the home fitness centre. Like outdoor kitchens, home gyms had something of a renaissance in the past few years and have grown increasingly common in new build projects.
In addition, new high-tech equipment is more readily available than ever, with many featuring virtual training to get a professional workout without leaving your home. At-home facilities can range from more traditional weightlifting rooms to modern Pilates studios to outdoor yoga spaces.
Luxury home gyms have hit their stride
Selling Sunsets
Dubai’s luxury real estate market is all about selling the story (or the sunset). Bolstered by a flock of high net-worth buyers, high-end real estate prices have jumped 89% over the past year and the sale of ultraluxe properties priced at more than $10 million reached an unprecedented level.
Research shows that property listings that are well-written, and create a story that the client can buy into, sell faster than generic, poorly written listings.
Additionally, the last thing a seller wants is for their stunning property to be let down by their broker’s bland, cut and paste description. Or one that’s been read time and time again by ready buyers.
Using a real estate themed generative AI tool, like overwrite.ai, solves this problem instantly. Listings are created through a series of simple prompts, to produce localised, engaging, seo-optimised text, which sells the lifestyle, through elevated AI generated language.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of overwrite.ai and its owners.
This story has been published from an article in Forbes magazine published on May, 2023.
overwrite.ai is a pioneering Themed Generative AI, creating engagement-oriented content for the real estate industry.
We create 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.
overwrite | real estate content creation, reimagined.
Dubai’s real estate sector will remain stable in 2023 despite global economic headwinds, according to S&P analysts.
The international credit ratings specialists say growth will support strong cash flow, steady profitability, and improving credit metrics in a new report.
S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Tatjana Lescova said:
“Mounting economic pressures globally, including rising interest rates, inflation, and the devaluation of emerging currencies, may cool the demand for residential real estate. This will lead residential real estate prices to stabilise in 2023.”
“Nevertheless, we expect continued deleveraging and improving rating headroom for Dubai-based real estate companies in 2023.
“We also expect ample liquidity and limited funding needs. Plentiful cash flow leaves headroom for higher capital expenditure, dividends, or acquisitions”.
Real estate operators will benefit from rising footfall and a growing number of international visitors, but face the risk of reduced spending due to economic headwinds.
Rents will remain under pressure due to new supply.
Dubai’s GDP will expand by about 3% in 2023, with modest annual inflation of about 3%, according to S&P Global Ratings.
At the same time the population will grow by three to four per cent. Supportive oil prices will sustain positive investor sentiment in the GCC region, while international tourism will continue to recover from its 2020 trough.
Real estate developers’ revenue growth will mainly come from new and recent sales. Developers have good revenue visibility for the next couple of years, thanks to their robust revenue backlogs following strong presales in 2021-2022.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of overwrite.ai and its owners.
Ayman Alashkar, Founder and CEO of UAE AI startup overwrite.ai, talks to Middle East’s Wired Magazine about “high accuracy, outcome-oriented content” and trends around the business application for GAI.
At the end of 2022, social media was stirred up by a chatbot that could produce text responses or create content guided by simple prompts in a stunningly human way. We’re of course talking about ChatGPT, a generative AI (GAI) that can create text based on training data it has received.
When ChatGPT’s flickering cursor moves across the screen and types out text in a few seconds, or when artworks generated by DALL-E (an AI image generator also developed by OpenAI) win art competitions, many of us are both thrilled and scared. A future where AI can undertake increasingly complicated tasks and eventually replace humans seems ever more possible. According to research by Gartner in 2023, by 2025, the global market for GAI is expected to reach $18.5 billion, with 75 percent of enterprises using some form of GAI technology in their businesses. Naturally, the GAI arms race is becoming fierce among the tech giants, and no one wants to be left out.
The Game Players
All in the race: Microsoft, OpenAI, AWS and Hugging Face, Baidu, META
For the public, it is reassuring when a top AI scientist like Yann LeCun, a Turing Award recipient, says that GAI like ChatGPT has “no knowledge of the world around them” and that they are merely “typing, writing aids.”
“I agree that at this point, ChatGPT is best to be seen as a typing and writing aid, and also one that requires a lot of attention,” said Professor Preslav Nakov, Acting Deputy Department Chair of the NLP department at the Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence.
For smaller players in the GAI game, the competition is a healthy sign. “It promotes research and development and provides more options for businesses and developers to leverage AI,”
Prof. Nakov also thinks of it as a stimulation of development. He compared the situation to how the iPhone revolutionized smartphones and sparked the development of similar technology,
“I expect several ChatGPT-like projects to flourish in the coming years and even months, and there are already serious competitors eager to catch up and improve,” he says.
“My big concerns are around the ethics we have to deal with,” says Senese. The ethical dilemmas linked to GAI may result in a tumultuous human-AI relationship.
The Middle East’s take on generative AI
The tornado of GAI has swept across the globe.
“A 2023 survey of 1,000 US business leaders found that 49 percent of companies currently use ChatGPT, and another 30 percent plan to,” Prof. Nakov pointed out.
The Middle East is not isolated from this. ChatGPT has been a topic of discussion within the UAE government leadership, with some entities like DEWA (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority) already adopting it.
The region’s blossoming startup culture is embracing increasing numbers of AI startups.
Other industries, such as real estate, oil and gas, and healthcare, are also steering toward an AI-powered future.
Ayman Alashkar, the founder of overwrite.ai, is an active public speaker and leader in AI. He believes that the trend around the business application for GAI “lies in outcome-oriented content, where high accuracy is important”.
With a background in UAE’s real estate industry, Alashkar developed overwrite.ai, a highly efficient real estate-themed GAI.
Dr. Hector Ren, Director of Engineering and Production at Inception Institute of Artificial Intelligence (IIAI), also observed this trend. “It is believed that smaller companies will lead the trend by providing specialized tools and services that support the development and deployment of language models,” he says.
The Middle East to become a major player in AI development
In the UAE, breakthroughs in Arabic LLM are also happening quickly, creating opportunities for the Middle East to become a major player in AI development. Engineers at IIAI, a G42 company, have created the largest Arabic LLM with 13 billion parameters to date. Dr. Ren viewed it as a milestone for the Arabic NLP field that will significantly benefit the Arab world.
The GAI arms race is only just beginning. Indeed, the competition will foster revolutionary changes in our society across various industries.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of overwrite.ai and its owners.
This story has been published from an article published in WIRED May, 2023.
Only the article length, headline and images have been edited to fit this blog. The original article is linked below.
More about overwrite.ai
overwrite.ai is a Foundation Language Model. A pioneering themed generative AI, delivering 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.
Is rent-seeking in the property sphere about to come under attack from robots?
This winter, American realtors have a plethora of problems to ponder. Surging interest rates have created a frozen residential housing market and shifting working practices will push office vacancies to 55 per cent above their pre-pandemic peak by 2030, according to new research from Cushman & Wakefield. The prospect of stranded assets looms.
But if you listen to the chatter among realtors right now, there is another topic sparking even more debate: ChatGPT, the chatbot equipped with generative artificial intelligence launched last November by OpenAI, with backing from Microsoft.
The explosive spread of this tool has already sparked a noisy debate about the impact of AI on sectors such as education, science and the media. The real estate world, however, has attracted less investor focus. That is a mistake.
AI disruption of traditional real estate is well underway
A wave of AI experimentation in this sector is already under way: brokers are using ChatGPT to write listings and social media posts, calculate mortgage payments, scour real estate databases and amass expertise on new fields, such as agriculture. As these experiments accelerate, they prompt a bigger question: will an AI-equipped realtor really need as many human realtors — and brokerage fees — in the future?
Or to put it another way, is rent-seeking in the property sphere about to come under attack from robots? Not in the literal sense of involvement in leases, but as described by economists: when powerful incumbents rig a market, by making it opaque or complex, to extract high fees.
Realtors themselves do not believe they will lose their jobs. “A common feeling [in the property sector] is that it will help rather than replace real estate professionals,” the Cushman & Wakefield report insists. “Some tasks will be automated [but] it’s more about helping to make people really good at what they do.”
Maybe so. Robots, after all, cannot sense the intangible qualities of a building, in a way that humans can. Nor can they read the body language of purchasers and sellers, and provide the necessary encouragement or reassurance. Given the extreme anxiety involved in many property trades, this is a serious shortcoming.
Moreover, the AI tools such as ChatGPT that are sparking such excitement do not always function well without human oversight. To understand the risks, consider an experiment recently carried out by Sarah Bell, an AI specialist focused on real estate. When she asked ChatGPT to evaluate the desirability of different tenants based on nationality, she discovered that the python computing code inside the bot was profoundly prejudiced against Australians.
More alarming still, it was impossible to determine exactly why it disliked Australians, because the system was a black box. A real estate principal who unknowingly deployed the anti-Australian python code would be “responsible” for violations of anti-discrimination legislation, Bell notes.
What the industry really needs is not so much AI in the sense of artificial intelligence, but another type of AI: augmented intelligence — ways to help humans to think smarter. The only way to achieve that is to add in a third AI, anthropology intelligence, which would imbue the process with vital cultural context.
New levels of transparency
Even if humans are needed to make sense of AI, it is not clear that the industry needs as many of them today. After all, in the past decade, the internet has already introduced new levels of transparency into the business: non-professionals can now use property websites to value properties, see listings, arrange mortgages and connect sellers and buyers.
Despite this, the number of residential real estate brokers and dealers in America (some 562,000 at last count) has not declined, but appears to be on the rise: the number is projected to expand by another 5 per cent over the next decade. Employment in the commercial real estate sector is almost 4mn — and is rising.
Neither has the new era of digital transparency dented sky-high brokerage fees. In 2020, average commission rates on residential property sales were 5.66 per cent. That was less than the 6.02 per cent level seen in 1992 — but higher than the levels recorded between 2011 and 2018. This is utterly perverse. Or, as an economist might say, a strong sign of rent-seeking.
Might this now change? Realtors obviously hope not. But entrepreneurs are sensing an opportunity for disruption, particularly given the other macroeconomic pressures now bearing down on the market.
“Technology entrepreneurs have a unique advantage to start a real estate tech company in AI today [since] most incumbents have had a challenging last two years,” argues Kunal Lunawat, one such wannabe challenger.
Investors — and economists — would do well to watch what happens next, not least as a test case for whether tech innovation can challenge rent-seeking.
After all, if robots can make the industry more efficient and bring down commission rates, many property owners will be thrilled.
Rightly so: with or without AI, the sector is overdue for reform.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of overwrite.ai and its owners.
Gillian Tettwrites for Financial Times.
This story has been published from an article in Financial Times published on March 3, 2022.
overwrite.ai is a pioneering Themed Generative AI, creating engagement-oriented content for the real estate industry.
We create 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.
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Name any real estate agent on the planet who would turn down a brand new wardrobe full of tailor-made suits 👔🔥… We couldn’t either.
But it can become an expensive habit. And it doesn’t take a fashionista, or financial advisor, to tell you that blowing every commission cheque on a fancy new suit probably isn’t the wisest decision.
So, for the broker who wants to “look the part”, without breaking the bank, check out these Suit Shopping Hacks.
1. Size Matters
Suit sizing is actually pretty straightforward once you know what you need. Your jacket size is roughly equivalent to the diameter of your chest plus an inch or so of fabric so you can breathe. If your chest is 40 inches in diameter, then you’re probably going to be a 42 jacket size. If you’re in doubt you can always get measured for free at any department store.
Trouser waists are pretty easy. Just a case of wrapping a tape measure around your waist. When it comes to length there’s only 3 options. “R” for regular, “S” for short, and “L” for long. Unless you’re unusually short or tall, chances are an “R” will fit fine.
2. The Last Drop
Now that you know your jacket size and waist size, you need to learn what a “drop” is. This is especially important if you’re ordering your suit online, so you know what size trousers your new suit will come with. The drop is just the difference in size between the jacket and the trousers. For example, if a suit is a 40R drop six, that means the jacket is size 40, and the trousers are 6 inches smaller, so a 34 inch waist.
3. A Cut Above
This might take some time, but before you can confidently shop online for a suit, you need to learn how different designers size their suits off the rails. For example, some suit brands are notoriously roomy. Others are cut just right, and more fashion forward Italian suits might be cut super tight. That means you could be an entirely different jacket size in one shop to another.
4. Love Thy Tailor
A good tailor can make even a suit that’s been picked from the rails, look like it was made-to-measure. A few alterations here and there can go a long way. Befriend the tailor in your local community and see what his limits are for alterations. Soon that oversized jacket will be fitting you like a glove.
5. Bargain Hunter
Once you understand which suit best fits your body shape, it’s a matter of waiting for the sales to hit, and get in there first. Many of the middle range brands, selling suits on the high street or online, regularly have great sales where you can get an excellent quality at a fraction of the original price.
A Little Goes a Long Way
There’s no denying that a custom-made suit will look better than anything you can get off the hanger, regardless of how much it sets you back. But, for the brokers who either aren’t ready to go bespoke, or who’d rather be savvy with their spending, this list should have you looking the part, at a fraction of the price.
In the mean time, carry yourself with confidence, channel your mindset to success, and with a touch of ‘Harvey Specter Swagger’, you’ll be surprised how far a cheeky high street hack can take you.
More about overwrite.ai
overwrite.ai is a Foundation Language Model. A pioneering themed generative AI, delivering 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.
From headline-grabbing AI projects to protection against cyber criminals, hiring for the right competencies will determine which businesses win in 2023.
Whether you’re a one-person show, or part of a global enterprise with 100’s of employees, hiring for the latest tech skills will help you do business more efficiently, safely and profitably.
So, here are the 3 areas to focus your energy when it comes to developing key skills, and driving growth and innovation for your business – large or small.
Developing skills in AI doesn’t necessarily have to be about learning advanced computer science and how to create machine-learning algorithms from scratch.
More practically, it’s about understanding how to fit the plethora of tools and platforms that are becoming increasingly available, affordable and usable every day, to the needs of your business.
By now, most people reading this have probably heard of, and used, ChatGPT, or the new, AI-enabled version of Microsoft’s Bing search engine. You may even have dabbled with tools like Dall-E 2 or Stable Diffusion to see what AI-generated art is about.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are literally hundreds of AI-infused tools and platforms becoming available, designed to automate and speed up leisure or business activities from bookkeeping to social media management, prospecting for leads, creating text, videos and soundtracks, or managing any kind of project.
Take real estate for example. Agents can now significantly improve their efficiency by adopting generative AI. Using overwrite.ai to create property listing descriptions, means agents can focus on higher value tasks, (such as closing deals), instead of time-consuming admin.
It’s also about being able to understand and predict the way AI will impact your line of business in the future, so when even more sophisticated and powerful tools inevitably become available, you’ll be the first to put them to work and reap the rewards.
2. Data analysis
Most businesses don’t know how to use even a fraction of the data that they generate or have access to through external sources.
Those that do can use it to drive efficiency, better understand their markets and competition, and develop products and services that are more in-line with their customers’ needs.
As with AI – and this is particularly true if you are a smaller organisation – these days it doesn’t necessarily have to mean developing the hardcore technical skills that you would have needed if you’d wanted to carry out analytics 20 years ago.
Today, you can find myriad tools with friendly user-interfaces that will help you analyse your data.
All you need to do is access the data you already have to understand, for example, what demographics your products and services are popular with, what price points your customers are comfortable with, how your customer service performance impacts your customer churn, and how faults, breakages and wastage affects your bottom line.
3. Cybersecurity
It’s a sad but inescapable fact that as technology enables us to do new and amazing things, it also makes us vulnerable to new threats. The cost of cybercrime to businesses will be $8tn in 2023 and is expected to grow to £10.5t by 2025. Much of this is down to costs incurred when data is stolen – estimated at around $500 per stolen record, with the most damaging cyber thefts seeing fraudsters make off with millions of records.
Once again, there is a common misconception here – that implementing cybersecurity skills will involve hiring elite experts who will sit in a darkened room, scanning monitors for thieves attempting to breach your firewall.
In fact, the most important cybersecurity skills are those that can be taught relatively cheaply to anyone. These include safe password management practices, avoidance of malware, and awareness of attacks designed to stop letting attackers in.
The technology landscape is constantly evolving. This means it’s essential to take a strategic approach to putting the right skills in place, across the workforce. By doing this, business leaders ensure their organisations are ready to leverage the tools, platforms and trends that will help them to tackle their priorities – without being side-tracked by those that are just likely to be a distraction.
More about overwrite.ai
overwrite.ai is a Foundation Language Model. We are a pioneering themed generative 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.
Whether you’re new to estate agency or a seasoned veteran, your daily to-do list must feel like it’s off the scale. In this 21st century, post-Covid world we live in, how you manage your workload makes the difference between you and the next broker.
From marketing yourself and your listings, networking, transacting, managing colleagues and clients, it can be overwhelming for even the most experienced realtor. So many tasks. So little time. Sometimes it may feel like it’s hard to even know where to start.
We’ve got your answer, in one little word. Efficiency.
And this week, we’re bringing you 5 daily time-busting hacks that’ll help you master the art of it.
Whether you’re teaching yourself, or teaching your new hires, there are always new “work hacks” that’ll have you increasing your efficiency, saving time and making more money.
#1 Plan your day
Set aside time every morning to think through your plan for the day. It might be during your morning shower, while you’re driving to the office, or making that first coffee of the day. Clearly define what you must do, should do and want to do — and plan it like a boss.
#2 Align with AI
AI is here to make life easier. And real estate themed generative AI is built to leverage property professionals. Boosting efficiency on a daily basis. Consider the time-consuming task of writing property descriptions. By using overwrite.ai, agents can instantly create unique and engaging listing descriptions in seconds, with artificially intelligent, time-saving technology. What’s more, the generative-AI listing descriptions are proven to generate more leads.
#3 No more Netflix
Having your favourite Netflix series or Insta reel playing in the background while you catch up on paperwork, might feel like multi-tasking, but don’t kid yourself. It’s most probably the most counter-productive thing you could be doing. Instead, get comfortable at your desk with your favourite drink, or better still, grab a table at your local cafe, and have one made for you. Focus. Drown out everyone and everything that isn’t contributing to your task. You’ll get the job done quicker.
#4 Time-block
This simple strategy of allocating a set time to certain tasks throughout the day can seriously increase efficiency. For example, dedicate specific chunks to lead generation, content creation, viewings, or other professional tasks. Creating alarms on your phone to remind you of the timetable (so you actually do the jobs you’ve allocated time for), is also a handy tip.
#5 Save the best ’til last
It’s all about priorities. The task you dread the most should be the one to get done first. Tackling this head-on will only help make the rest of your day run more smoothly. That sense of accomplishment early on can mean the difference between a good day or a bad one.
Make it count
Being a real estate agent is like running your own small business. And like any profitable venture, there’s no room for time wasting. How your wealth and business grow, will depend on efficiencies your create in your productivity and time management. New habits or technologies can’t be learned overnight. But by following these simple time-saving strategies, you’ll build a solid foundation for success.
Get in the habit of always reviewing how you can be more efficient. You’ll find yourself reaching your goals faster, even surpassing them. Whether it’s watching a webinar to improve your negotiation skills, or using a real estate themed generative AI, to ensure your listings are engaging, fresh and error-free. As long as you’re always testing and evolving yourself, you’ll power ahead of the competition.
More about overwrite.ai
overwrite.ai is a Foundation Language Model. We are a pioneering themed generative 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.
