AI vs. Reality

I'm growing increasingly frustrated with the level of Artificial Ineptitude that's creeping in to classic car advertising (in fact, everything, but that's a rant for another time).

Case in point: I'm genuinely in the market to change my Triumph GT6 because I don't really fit in it comfortably. This means I spend an unhealthy amount of time trawling through classified ads / online auctions looking at classic cars. Those whose descriptions have been generated by AI stand out like a sore thumb, and I personally have a rule that I will not buy a car where someone can't even be bothered to write a description themselves.

I decided to try it for myself. For context, my GT6 is of average appearance (not perfect paint), had presumably languished idle for years (no MoT history prior to 2022) and has been restored, albeit not brilliantly. I entered the details into eBay's AI Bot thing and got this:

Well, that's helpful isn't it? It's made a leaping assumption about my car's maintenance history and condition which is downright wrong. Someone less well-informed than this audience could well be very misled by that. There's more: the other day I saw a 2-door car described as having "an impressive number of doors" and everything seems to end with "Don't miss this opportunity..." etc.

For clarity, I've written my own description that accurately reflects my car's condition. I think it took me 15 mins, so no big deal. I know I can back up any statements I have made about its condition.

So, for discussion at your leisure:

- Anyone have any experience buying / selling where an AI description has been the hook?
- In the event somebody buys a car as badly mis-described as the example above, and gets their pants pulled down, who's liable when it goes wrong?

I'm not as hateful of POA as most PH-ers, although it's a pain if you're "information gathering" like most of us do. I bought the 6 unseen, off an honest-sounding description on eBay and it was exactly as described, so I'm happy taking the risk. The difference was that the seller had bothered to look at the car, write the description and take some pictures.

I'm an academic (part-time PhD Researcher) and AI is increasingly muddying the waters of academic submissions. It's a long way from perfect, but by its very nature it will learn and improve.

Oh yes, these are really annoying as it's just meaningless tosh.

Some ads I really like, and can be an absolute gold mine (if you're prepared to do some leg work) are the ones where you have virtually no description.
Eg:
"MGB for sale, runs, drives and stops. What you see is what you get"

Down at my end of the classic car market I'm more interested in bodywork as nearly all mechanical stuff can be fixed relatively inexpensively. I often don't even read the descriptions as photos are worth a thousand words.

AI = Artificial Intelligence = Actual Idiocy

AI like this is for lazy tts destined to get stupider over time as AI does more and more for them. Me I'd stay well clear of an advert like that.

TX.