Over in the world of online shopping, what you say and how you say it might make all the difference in convincing someone to part ways with their money. However, if you lack the gift of the gab and can’t put words to the page all that well, you may find your stuff just doesn’t connect with the buyer.
That could be why eBay has turned to AI, but not in the way you may expect.
While AI can be found pretty much anywhere and everywhere these days, offering suggestions to improve your emails or maybe just writing everything for you, AI can also be used to turn images into visual descriptions, something we’re beginning to see used for closed captions.
The concept sees an AI analyse a visual image and frame, breaking it down into core components to recognise what’s going on, and turning it into words, and while there are potential issues, it could make for a faster worded description of a scene. And there are more ways the technology can be used.
Over on eBay, one of the world’s biggest online sellers is set to use the AI visual analysis technology to give people who mightn’t have an idea of what to write about their products a starting point with an AI-powered listing tool.
The tech comes in the form of an app that will allow you to snap a picture of what you plan to sell, and have the description and listing get generated from that.
In terms of the “what” powering this, eBay wouldn’t say whether this was essentially just a version of ChatGPT image analysis system wrapped up inside of an app, but it does appear to use a combination of generative AI and the eBay marketplace to get its information out.
However, it may only be as good as the angle and the photo being taken. For instance, if you were photographing an Eames Chair for sale, a photo of the fabric or the cushion up close mightn’t give you the same result as say photographing the Eames Chair in its classic pose with the accompanying ottoman in front.
While our guess is eBay probably hasn’t made its own AI system for this, the result may not matter. For people struggling to get the right descriptions out and a good assortment of words to turn their stuff into something for sale, this could assist, and push them in the right direction.
