AI Now Helps Manage 16% of America's Apartments (sfgate.com) 37
Imagine a 280-unit apartment complex offering no on-site leasing office with a human agent for questions. "Instead, the entire process has been outsourced to AI..." reports SFGate, "from touring to signing the lease to completing management tasks once you actually move in."
Now imagine it's far more than just one apartment complex... At two other Jack London Square apartment buildings, my initial interactions were also with a robot. At the Allegro, my fiance and I entered the leasing office for our tour and asked for "Grace P," the leasing agent who had emailed us. "Oh, that's just our AI assistant," the woman at the front desk told us... At Aqua Via, another towering apartment complex across the street, I emailed back and forth with a very helpful and polite "Sofia M." My pal Sofia seemed so human-like in her responses that I did not realize she was AI until I looked a little closer at a text she'd sent me. "Msgs may be AI or human generated...." [S]he continued to text me for weeks after I'd moved on, trying to win me back. When I looked at the fine print, I realized both of these complexes were using EliseAI, a leading AI housing startup that claims to be involved in managing 1 in 6 apartments in the U.S...
[50 corporate landlords have funded a VC named RET Ventures to invest in and deploy rental-automating AI, and SFGate's reporter spoke to partner Christopher Yip.] According to Yip, AI is common in large apartment complexes not just in the tech-centric Bay Area, but across the entire country. It all kicked off at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, he said, when contactless, self-guided apartment tours and completely virtual tours where people rented apartments sight unseen became commonplace. Technology's infiltration into the renting process has only grown deeper in the years since, Yip said, mirroring how pervasive AI has become in many other facets of our lives. "From an industry perspective, it's really about meeting the renter where they are," Yip said. He pointed to how many renters now prefer to interact through text and email, and want to tour apartments at their convenience — say, at 7 p.m. after work, when a typical leasing office might be closed.
The latest updates in technology not only allow you to take a self-guided tour with AI unlocking the door for you, but also to ask AI questions by conversing with voice AI as you wander through the kitchen and bedroom at your leisure. And while a human leasing agent might ghost you for days or weeks at a time, AI responds almost instantly — EliseAI typically responds within 30 seconds, [said Fran Loftus, chief experience officer at EliseAI]... [I]n some scenarios, the goal does seem to be to eliminate humans entirely. "We do have long-term plans of building fully autonomous buildings," Loftus said.... "We think there's a time and a place for that, depending on the type of property. But really right now, it's about helping with this crazy turnover in this industry."
The reporter says they missed the human touch, since "The second AI was involved, the interaction felt cold. When a human couldn't even be bothered to show up to give me a tour, my trust evaporated."
But they conclude that in the years ahead, human landlords offering tours "will probably go the way of landlines and VCRs."
Now imagine it's far more than just one apartment complex... At two other Jack London Square apartment buildings, my initial interactions were also with a robot. At the Allegro, my fiance and I entered the leasing office for our tour and asked for "Grace P," the leasing agent who had emailed us. "Oh, that's just our AI assistant," the woman at the front desk told us... At Aqua Via, another towering apartment complex across the street, I emailed back and forth with a very helpful and polite "Sofia M." My pal Sofia seemed so human-like in her responses that I did not realize she was AI until I looked a little closer at a text she'd sent me. "Msgs may be AI or human generated...." [S]he continued to text me for weeks after I'd moved on, trying to win me back. When I looked at the fine print, I realized both of these complexes were using EliseAI, a leading AI housing startup that claims to be involved in managing 1 in 6 apartments in the U.S...
[50 corporate landlords have funded a VC named RET Ventures to invest in and deploy rental-automating AI, and SFGate's reporter spoke to partner Christopher Yip.] According to Yip, AI is common in large apartment complexes not just in the tech-centric Bay Area, but across the entire country. It all kicked off at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, he said, when contactless, self-guided apartment tours and completely virtual tours where people rented apartments sight unseen became commonplace. Technology's infiltration into the renting process has only grown deeper in the years since, Yip said, mirroring how pervasive AI has become in many other facets of our lives. "From an industry perspective, it's really about meeting the renter where they are," Yip said. He pointed to how many renters now prefer to interact through text and email, and want to tour apartments at their convenience — say, at 7 p.m. after work, when a typical leasing office might be closed.
The latest updates in technology not only allow you to take a self-guided tour with AI unlocking the door for you, but also to ask AI questions by conversing with voice AI as you wander through the kitchen and bedroom at your leisure. And while a human leasing agent might ghost you for days or weeks at a time, AI responds almost instantly — EliseAI typically responds within 30 seconds, [said Fran Loftus, chief experience officer at EliseAI]... [I]n some scenarios, the goal does seem to be to eliminate humans entirely. "We do have long-term plans of building fully autonomous buildings," Loftus said.... "We think there's a time and a place for that, depending on the type of property. But really right now, it's about helping with this crazy turnover in this industry."
The reporter says they missed the human touch, since "The second AI was involved, the interaction felt cold. When a human couldn't even be bothered to show up to give me a tour, my trust evaporated."
But they conclude that in the years ahead, human landlords offering tours "will probably go the way of landlines and VCRs."
end of an era (Score:2)
The human era.
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There's a line, and we're either dangerously close to going over it -- or already have somewhere in the last three years.
The Era of Machines is rising.
This is just so dystopian it is bothersome. I don't think it'll be something as cheerful and (allegedly) helpful as C3PO, it's gonna be much darker.
Or maybe it'll go a different way - back in the stone age, I was married to a boricua girl. If she'd call a complex after a move from base to base, and they heard her accent, no deal, no vacancies. I'd call a f
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Elevated exposure to tiktok/reels/shorts detected. Would you like some grass to touch?
Re: end of an era (Score:1)
You're not getting replaced with AI (Score:1, Troll)
It's the end of capitalism only without socialism or communism. Techno feudalism.
The best way to sum up the current situation, the planet Earth is just a resort for 500 people and we are all staff.
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Rsilvergun, it's fine if you don't write a novel for each comment you post... short posts are totally acceptable.
Hackable (Score:2)
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Re:Hackable (Score:5, Insightful)
It is NOT legally binding. An employee representing the company can get them bound into legal troubles while an AI might do crazy stuff it's not a legal representative of the company. Some bad PR but they can backtrack from a crazy AI mistake and I don't see lawsuits going against them in any meaningful way.
What we need to do is to require AI representatives be as legally bound as an actual human employee. Then watch the corps be extremely careful in what roles they deploy these agents.
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Generally, media published by the company should also count. Pamphlets and brochures, language on their website, language in recorded phone messages, things expressed by voice or in pictorial form in videos, etc. In theory, AI interactions should absolutely count. Though, I am getting the feeling that AI won't count any more because... AI. Also, any of those former things that would count can then be laundered through AI since it's a magical gray area that no-one can be accountable for.
Perfect Crime (Score:2)
You launder crimes with an AI bot in a way that provides no trail back to your actual clear orders... a local AI or maybe one pretending to be a mobster and you forgot to tell it to switch out of character...
When the crime comes back to you; if it does, depending on how well you set all this up... you have plausible deniability. You could simply have a history of training the bot to understand your inferred intent (which they seem to be doing maybe? or it's close to inference which is the BFD of the centur
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What we need to do is to require AI representatives be as legally bound as an actual human employee. Then watch the corps be extremely careful in what roles they deploy these agents.
That has already happened. Air Canada was found to be legally liable for information provided by their AI [bbc.com].
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Great!! now we need more solid foundation than a specific ruling by a judge in 1 region. Plus this is Air Canada, who is going to fuck up everything... others won't be as prone to failure. LAWS SHOULD BE PASSED.
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I would move to a better apartment com
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Occasionally I do get a native American speaker
What, like Navajo or Algonquin?
Seriously? (Score:4, Insightful)
It’s been a while since I rented, but when I did, whenever I called the landlord, my goal was work out an issue with the utilities or get traction on a maintenance issue. As quickly and efficiently as possible. At no point did I ever call hoping for a deep meaningful human interaction. If AI can get me faster response for dealing with that flickering light fixture, I’m all for it.
Human interaction matters. A lot. But anyone expecting spiritual fulfillment from their landlord has bigger issues.
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I'd say; outside of seeing a human avatar, there is not much difference between a meat-based drone and the new video screen human looking avatar.... except much more wordy conversation that can go on as long as you have time for.
In the future, if you want to know if the bot is human based or AI, see how much they try to shorten the conversation - because the human wants you out of their face before you open your mouth.
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Today your landlord is an LLC in a completely different state. There is no one to speak with.
Re: Seriously? (Score:1)
It's got nothing to do with being warm and fuzzy (Score:2, Troll)
You can see this in places that require heat and air conditioning for people to live. Every year there are several examples of these remotely managed properties where the AC or the heat goes out and the people just don't have it. Usually the kind of places where poor people live where t
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Why reply to yourself?
If the AC isn't you, prove it.
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If the landlord doesn't fix it, a phone call to the building inspector tends to get maintenance moving on repairs.
Also, there's Renter's Rights... if they repeatedly don't fix an issue, you can put your rent into escrow through the court, and they can't touch the rent until they fix everything.
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I don't know the details of how this works in the USA, but here in Britain, I once rented an apartment in a block of ~60 or so. It was a commercial premises, converted to housing - all very trendy exposed brickwork and whatnot. The design of the place was appalling though, one little fart and half the block heard it. You honestly couldn't have a conversation in the lounge area because you'd be disturbing the place next to you that had bedrooms next to your lounge. Utterly crazy...
Anyway... one christmas, I'
The first issue here (Score:2)
Fifty corporate landlords own over 3 million apartments, while millions of people struggle to pay their bills.
Property manager here: scams (Score:5, Insightful)
Rather frequently in recent years couple prevalent scams have popped up.
The first is someone who has access to a property, like an AirB&B, lists/shows it as a rental and takes application fees, holding fees and initial deposits from people. Then disappears.
The second is someone takes the pictures/ad copy and lists the unit separately at a lower price, then has folks use payment services to send them money. I watermark my ad pics to increase the friction of doing this.
There have been instances of an owner showing up to their property with unknown strangers with moving trucks demanding keys to "their" apartment!
The caution we give in landlord forums to tenants is to meet with the actual person at the unit, be sure they have access/keys, do not send money without corroborating ownership/authenticity. An AI tour might be a complete scam. One benefit as a smaller scope is wanting to meet tenants to initially screen them, get a feel for what type of people they are, their responsibility level, etc. Forming that rapport also enables mutual respect.
That said, I'd love an AI receptionist. Yes please. I can still provide the human touch (touched base with all tenants today regarding parking for a blizzard).
But please be careful and warn folks of scams and discourage processes that obscure validity.
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The second is someone takes the pictures/ad copy and lists the unit separately at a lower price, then has folks use payment services to send them money. I watermark my ad pics to increase the friction of doing this.
Who is leasing a property sight unseen?
I'm definitely not one for victim blaming but if they haven't even looked at the property in person they deserve what they get. Along with the old addage of "if it looks too good to be true..." (caveat emptor as well, there are a lot of applicable cliches)
Its harder to do this in most countries as we have a free interbank transfer system, so asking me to PayPal money to a property agent is a giant red flag. Not saying it won't ever happen, but it's a lot harder a
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People like that are idiots.
I've relocated five fucking times halfway across the continent. Four of those times I've either stayed with friends, or taken a motel room while I searched for somewhere to live.
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People like that are idiots.
I've relocated five fucking times halfway across the continent. Four of those times I've either stayed with friends, or taken a motel room while I searched for somewhere to live.
I've relocated halfway across the world (Australia to the UK)... You start by getting short term accommodation to look for long term accommodation. It's more expensive than just getting long term accommodation but it's cheaper than getting scammed. There's almost always someone who leases by the month, you pay a premium for it but cheaper than a hotel/motel. It's useful as it lets you try before you buy, see if you like the place and find out where the good/bad neighbourhoods are.