What do you make of AI discriptions? Do you use them?

[pillarboxred]

I'm selling so little and for so little, I thought I'd give AI a try. It is too soon to know if it is working. I feel the prose generated is bland and gushing and I don't know whether it  would sway me as a buyer. I sell what I think are nice things which will appeal to niche buyers and think that few of my items are "stunning". I don't want to be stunned by household ornaments which should harmonise and create a feeling of repose. Does anyone know whether it does work? Is it what shoppers browsing eBay respond best to? If it is, then "bring it on".

When using it, I do pick up on strange factual mistakes as when the gilding on a set of glasses  was wrongly applied to the stems as "gilded stems". The stems and feet were not gilded. I edited that.

[bravergrace]

---

@pillarboxred wrote:

I'm selling so little and for so little, I thought I'd give AI a try. It is too soon to know if it is working. I feel the prose generated is bland and gushing and I don't know whether it  would sway me as a buyer. Does anyone know whether it does work? Is it what shoppers browsing eBay respond best to? If it is, then "bring it on".

---

As far as I understand it, the AI description is not actually intended for buyers to read.  It is intended to manipulate the search engines.

Have you been selling long enough to remember the white-on-white keyword spammers?  They gave a brief description of their item, in ordinary black font, and followed it up with literally thousands of keywords, in white font.  These were obviously invisible to the naked eye (to avoid reporting as keyword spamming, which was something eBay disapproved of at that time), but they were picked up by search engines. 

So an item description might read:

This is a standard size mug as per picture.

(then followed apparently blank space, full of invisible keywords as in: ARTWORK AVAILABLE AXLE BABY BALL BAND BANK BEACH BEAUTIFUL .....).

AI descriptions are a slightly more focused version of that - they give gushing descriptions using strings of of current and largely irrelevant buzzwords like MODERN TRADITIONAL VINTAGE RETRO BOY GIRL IDEAL RED GREEN OLDER MATURE  WOMEN MEN LOVELY GLASS SHARP CLEAR CLOUDY STYLISH DESIGNER ARTISTIC DUAL BIFOCAL FOCUS NUDE  BIRTHDAY SUIT 21st, thrown together into sentences, for the search engines to pick up, with the object of driving as many viewers to your item as possible - whether they're looking for a vintage 21st cloudy red birthday glass for a boy or a pair of modern sharp bifocal spectacles to suit older women.

This may be a good strategy in the short term, but I suspect that search engines will soon compensate for it, and eBay will seesaw back to the advice they were giving us a couple of months ago, that "turns out less is more when it comes to descriptions.  Keep them brief and accurate".

[simplyc-accessories]

Yes, I use them and have sold from using them. They are a bit sickly sweet but with a bit of tweaking they can be okay. AI produced words and phrases that I would not have used before but were actually on point with what I was selling. So I will use them it's a quicker listing which I like.

They are good if you promote them to social media as it gives a nice description to post alongside the item you are advertising.

Nothing to lose I did the AI on items that had been hard to sell to see if it would work and I sold 3 from those listings in the first few days.

[plpmr]

When using AI remember that -

"Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing"

[the_book_seekers]

I've seen some AI descriptions that would be grounds for an INAD. There were clear discrepancies between the words and pictures.  The sellers were obviously not checking AI's output properly and they are giving scammers the opportunity. I've also read some over the top descriptions which sellers needed to tone down. 

[exponential_developments]

If you feel a long winded computer algorithm can describe your products better than you, then you shouldn't be in business.

[rainbowtrax]

They're terrible gushing drivel, frequently wrong, and rarely include any of the useful, or sometimes vital, info that buyers need. From a buying point of view, for auctions they can be great for picking up bargains as they often miss out the very keywords that are needed to get bidders, in favour of a load of meaningless waffle about how this [insert anything] is vital to your life and very existence. They can be great reading for giving yourself a laugh though, very entertaining. You can spot them a mile off as they all follow the same format and say much the same thing.

[1956glyn]

I totally agree.    A load of drivel soon has me moving on to other listings.

[tommystrezures]

It is pure drivel.... we have messed around with it, not sure its written by artificial intelligence, more like Actual Idiots.....

[pillarboxred]

That's what I suspect. I wonder what research eBay have to show that the stale, hackneyed, hyperbolic gush is working. If it is definitely working, I want to use it but it is embarrassing all the same.

[pillarboxred]

Snap! My thoughts.

[pillarboxred]

This is concerning. I fear that the very people we hope might buy our merchandise will be put off by the bad prose. That wouldn't worry me if it pulled in a rafts of other, eager, shoppers but does it?

[pillarboxred]

Yes, Actual Idiots. Silicon Valley has sold itself on Artificial Intelligence but is it "fit for purpose" yet?

[bravergrace]

I'm inclined to think the AI descriptions will probably work in the short term - in that it will "fool" the search engines initially, but since they will then be flooded with near-identical "descriptions" for millions of items, largely irrelevant to the searchers' actual enquiry, algorithms will change drastically to avoid being flooded by AI irrelevance, as buyers stop using those search engines.

As sellers add AI-generated descriptions to all their older listings, and get good initial results, many will naturally attribute this to the AI description, rather than the mere fact of tinkering with an old listing, so that eBay stops suppressing it in search results.  Both factors will tend to increase sales initially - but it's human nature to attribute success to the specific changes made, rather than the mere generally fact of "changing something".

[theelench]

---

@rainbowtrax wrote:

They're terrible gushing drivel, frequently wrong, and rarely include any of the useful, or sometimes vital, info that buyers need. From a buying point of view, for auctions they can be great for picking up bargains as they often miss out the very keywords that are needed to get bidders, in favour of a load of meaningless waffle about how this [insert anything] is vital to your life and very existence. They can be great reading for giving yourself a laugh though, very entertaining. You can spot them a mile off as they all follow the same format and say much the same thing.

---

"Gushing" is a good description of the few examples I've seen so far, assuming that what I've taken to be A.I generated descriptions aren't just the way the seller writes.

When I read a description of a vase I want to find out its height as they were often made in small, medium and large sizes.  For a bowl the diameter is even more important as they were often made as one large, serving size, with half a dozen smaller individual portion size.  I want to know what I'm buying, not someones / A.Is opinion of how wonderful it is.

Even more vital is the Condition  --  Is it chipped or cracked?

From the few I've read so far it seems A.I avoids facts in favour of "gush".  I'll decide if the item will "enhance" my collection based on the above facts and no amount of hyperbole will persuade me otherwise.  If what I've seen so far is the way A.I is now and will develop, I can't see that it'll persuade me to buy any more than I do now.   Facts and good, clear photos are what sell things to me, not several paragraphs of vague fluff and puff that essentially say nothing.

[plpmr]

AI?

This is the listing for a stamp -

“Up for sale is a stunning 1887 Queen Victoria 3c stamp from Newfoundland, Canada. This mint stamp is in pristine condition and has never been hinged. It features a beautiful design and is a must-have addition to any stamp collection. The stamp was manufactured in Canada. Don't miss out on the chance to own this rare and valuable piece of history.”

That describes this stamp - 

[btr.style]

Garbage. 

I make sure all of our listings have hand typed descriptions. Time consuming but sets us apart from many. 

Knowing your product is essential. 

[pillarboxred]

Every darned thing in AI descriptions is "stunning". It induces brain numbness and a kind of invisibility: if everything is stunning, nothing is stunning. Things can sell in spite of their descriptions so the fact that many items were claimed to be "stunning" doesn't mean they stunned anyone or that is the reason they sold: the software is making a causal connection where none exists.

[pillarboxred]

Yes, in reading descriptions written in an individual's idiolect, you sometimes see them standing before you. The effect can be charming although, occasionally, the reverse.

[pillarboxred]

You'd have to be unhinged to fall for that. As a stamp, is it a rarity? I've not been a philatelist since age six and I haven't seen it before. I don't think I've seen that portrait of Victoria on British stamps.