Central Oregon Realtors using new AI-based program ChatGPT to advance their workflow

They say it brings greater productivity -- and is the wave of the future

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- A new piece of technology called Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer -- better known as ChatGPT -- is already transforming the way people do business, including here on the High Desert.

It's free, and just requires you to create an account.

Only a few months into using ChatGPT, John Kromm, a broker at Harcourts, The Garner Group Real Estate, said the program helps him put together material for his YouTube channel, dedicated to educating viewers on local real estate happenings, as well as things to do and see in Bend. 

"So if it was a property description or even like a bio, or if you needed help with a social media post, you can just say, 'Write a social media post about real estate,'" Kromm said Monday.

The program can write pretty much anything, down to the specifics of how you want something to sound, how professionally it's written, and how long it should be. 

“I can ask it to write me a 30 second blog on cage fighting, as if Joe Rogan said it -- and it would write it how Joe Rogan talks!" Kromm said.

Cody Tuma, a principal broker at 541 Home Sales in Bend, says it’s transformative -- not just for his sector of businesses, but across industries. He also uses the AI technology to help produce content for his Youtube Channel, geared to educate people on real estate and offer tips and tricks on how people can enhance their lives.

“It cuts off probably 80 to 90 percent of the time that it would take me to normally write a listing description," Tuma said.

The AI-based program was launched last November by OpenAI.

In addition to writing emails, poems, essays, and stories, it can also write and identify errors in coding.

But with such vast capabilities, and many improvements on the way, ChatGPT does bring moral integrity into question.

Kromm says it’s all about intentionality. 

"For us, it’s about getting inspired and getting the information we need to create the content," Kromm said.

Tuma talked about how it might affect the workforce.

"Copyrighters and potentially attorneys -- people that have like anything to do with like, generating, copyrighting texts and whatnot," Tuma said. "There’s potential that it could replace them. If not, it's going to be a great tool to use to supplement their work flow. They could use it to optimize and increase their output."

As far as productivity is concerned, both Tuma and Kromm say the program is incredibly valuable. As they continue to explore the scope of capabilities the AI technology offers, they say it's great for revising their content and curtailing scripts and emails to reach different audiences.

Tuma said, "The future version of ChatGPT, like version 4.0 is going to be crazy! Ten times or 100 times what its current version is now."

After using the program for just a month, Tuma pointed out that one shortcoming is the lack of accuracy in some subjects. To work around that problem, he said it's still good to have an expert in a given field using the program.