Quite a few of you have reached out about Zillow’s new integration with ChatGPT. Especially after Victor Lund over at WAV Group published this article, titled “Zillow seeks forgiveness, not permission: MLSs must enforce cooperation in the AI era.”
At the face of it, without knowing a ton about how the Zillow App worked with ChatGPT, looked like this was a slam dunk case of data rules violation, and possibly copyright violation to boot. But I didn’t want to make up my mind based on one post; I wanted to ask around a bit, and experiment a bit as well.
I started calling around, speaking to people, gathering information, etc. with an eye towards writing a post. But I quickly realized that so much of what I wanted to discuss was the actual implementation of the Zillow App in ChatGPT. It’s one thing to theorize how something might work; it’s a different matter to experience it firsthand. So I made this video instead.
I use ChatGPT to show how the new Zillow app on ChatGPT works, and go over how the actual implementation may or may not be a problem with MLS data rules. Bonus: I also end up checking out Grok, which has no Zillow partnership.
I recorded it before Zillow published its FAQ. What I found fits in with what Zillow represents in that FAQ. And in case you’re tempted to just claim Zillow is lying and can’t be trusted… I think Zillow knows full well that if they did anything outside the lines, they would (a) get sued by MLS and brokerages alike, and (b) lose all data access. I think it’s safe to trust Zillow isn’t straight lying.
That doesn’t mean that AI does not present issues, especially for the MLS and especially around data and IP protection. It does. And there are other things to think about as well, as you’ll see when you view the video.
But absent more evidence and further information on how the Zillow App works with ChatGPT, I think it’s safe to say there is no violation here. Merely a signpost to future issues for the MLS to consider now, before issues become problems.
-rsh
