- 2024
- Dec
- 26
Selling something and you’ve asked AI to write the description? Good luck!
Do you buy any vintage equipment online, especially from a certain auction site? While this is probably a foolish thing to do because of the prices - sometimes you can find a very unique piece or a great deal on something you’ve wanted. Sometimes, very rarely sometimes.
However…one of the things I’ve noticed is the descriptions of the items have changed. Most used to be “I don’t know exactly what this is or how to test it. Assuming it’s non-working” or something along those lines. A fair assessment for a non-tech person.
But now, AI is writing things for people and it’s hilarious, but annoying because it’s now more valuable because it’s always “widely used in industry,” “well know for their stability,” or some nonsense. No, it’s a hobbyist piece or something made by a company that went out of business in 1974 because they no longer competed on the market.
There’s some serious SNAD material here, and if a dishonest person wanted to get stuff it would be easy enough to do as eBay seems to prefer the buyer’s word over the seller.
But when an unsuspecting buyer thinks they’re getting a device that does digital QAM/Digital Video because the seller just AI wrote some garbage and all they receive is an ancient Leader audio generator that wasn’t great when new - someone isn’t going to like the results.
If you’re selling something and you have no idea what it is, ask a friend. If you don’t have a friend, do 5 minutes of research and find out what it is. Copy the manufacturer’s boilerplate if you need to.
Just don’t tell AI “Write me a description of a Doo-More Signal Generator so I can sell it.” You’re going to get trash, and possibly a strike on your sales.
Just sayin.