Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Zillow announced Tuesday that it has created a tool for large language models to help safeguard against bias in real estate.
Why it matters: With AI tools increasingly used for real estate and housing, advocates, policymakers and the private sector are looking for ways to mitigate bias in algorithms or automated systems.
Driving the news: The product, the Fair Housing Classifier, is designed to help real estate companies and civil rights advocates.
- The tool will help mitigate illegal steering, which is the practice of influencing a buyer's choice of where to live based on the buyer's legally protected characteristics.
What they're saying: "We've made it our business to increase transparency in real estate — open sourcing this classifier demonstrates that advancements in technology do not need to come at the expense of equity and fairness for consumers," Zillow AI senior vice president Josh Weisberg said.
How it works: The classifier detects questions that could lead to discriminatory responses in searches or chatbots.
- Organizations that want to adopt it can get it on GitHub.
Go deeper: Government takes on AI in housing
