Description highlights summarized with ebay.ai Can I opt out?
There was a thread here not long ago talking about this, but I can't find it, so I'm just starting a new one.
On the app, some of my listings now have the description highlights summarized with ebay.ai with a paragraph they created, then the link to See Full Description. Not all of my listings have this (maybe just the newer ones??)
Is there a way for me to turn this off or opt out?
12 comments
mamacassidy
OP1 year agoOf the few I've seen, the info has not been incorrect, however, I do feel it's taken out of context.
My disclaimers on all my listings say:
PLEASE READ DISCLAIMERS: I am a single mother who sells family items on eBay. I am not a multi-million dollar business or corporation.
â— I accept returns within 30 days, and the BUYER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL SHIPPING CHARGES. When I receive a returned item that is in its original condition, buyer will be refunded ONLY THE PURCHASE PRICE OF THE ITEM unless there was an error in the listing.
â—I try to point out all the obvious flaws that I see, but I list all pre-owned items in "good" condition (not very good or excellent) just in case I've missed anything. I believe most of the items I sell are actually in excellent condition, but again, I use caution so that there are no unrealistic expectations or disappointments if small flaws exist on pre-owned items.
â—All items come from a clean and smoke-free home, however, I always recommend you clean or launder any pre-owned items you purchase (from me or anywhere else). I can not guarantee items have been cleaned, particularly vintage items, formal wear, and dry clean only pieces.
â—My goal is always a positive transaction. If you are happy with your purchase and leave positive feedback, I'll reciprocate the same for you! 🙂
That is basically what most of the AI is paraphrasing, and I just don't want them to paraphrase.
But my real concern is that I sell many suit sets that have different brands or sizes (ie, Kasper size 6 jacket with Ann Taylor size 8 skirt), and I'm afraid that the AI might summarize with only one of the sizes or brands, which could lead to unhappy buyers if they didn't read the full description.
valueaddedresource
·1 year ago@mamacassidy that's a valid concern for sure!
@devon@ebay @kyle@ebay @elizabeth@ebay - are there any help or policy pages about these AI summaries you could point sellers to and is there any way for sellers to opt out of having their descriptions potentially summarized by AI?
If there is no explicit opt out, can you find out from the product team if the information from that previous 2023 thread still applies re items being hidden behind the "click to see more" if they have custom HTML but not if they are plain text and if that also applies to having AI summaries shown?
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/interesting-ebay-app-hides-seller-description-but-shows-AI/m-p/33945316/highlight/true#M2265063
Thanks in advance for any info you can provide!
casprrr
·1 year agoI just looked at a couple of my recent listings, they aren't showing anything summarized by ebay.ai. After "About this item", I see "Item description from the seller", with a clicky to "see full description". Have you added your own "item details" or have these been left blank? I'm not sure, but it could be that if the seller leaves this blank, ebay.ai auto-generates a description. If blank, you might try adding a description to one of your listings shown in the examples above and see if the AI generated description goes away.
mamacassidy
OP1 year ago@casprrr
All of my listings have both item specifics and items descriptions filled in by me (not AI)
And for some reason, this is only showing up on some of my listings, not all.
Also, as I mentioned before, this is on the app, I don't see this on the website.
valueaddedresource
·1 year agoAlso, looking at your descriptions, it appears you are using some of the kinds of customizations mentioned in that 2023 post about the "see full description" link - things like bullet points, changing the font/color etc. were all suggested as things that may trigger it to hide the description behind a link.
I don't know if it will influence whether or not eBay uses AI to provide a summary, but it might be worth experimenting with just using plain text descriptions to see if that might cause eBay to display your actual description without having to click to see more and/or without an AI summary.
mamacassidy
OP1 year ago@valueaddedresource
Yes, as you mentioned, I use the bullet points which hide it behind the link. However, the bullet paragraph is something I copy and paste onto all my listings, and as of right now, only some of the listings have the AI summary.
I initially thought it was just a new thing, so it was only added to my new listings. However, the pair of pants I sold recently was listed at least a year ago, so I don't know how they determine which ones the summary is being added to.
valueaddedresource
·1 year agoThanks @mamacassidy ! Are you finding any problems with eBay.AI adding incorrect info in the summary?
That was the big concern with the Facebook Marketplace listings - additional info was added that could lead to item not as described claims.
mamacassidy
OP1 year agoHere are 2 more that sold earlier this week:
valueaddedresource
·1 year ago@mamacassidy I'm curious, do the summarized descriptions you see in the app actually explicitly say they are created by eBay.AI?
Several people on this thread I started about eBay using AI to summarize descriptions for items being displayed on Facebook Marketplace indicated the same thing but ultimately it sounded like possibly a different issue and that on the eBay app there wasn't an explicit designation of it being done by AI.
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/eBay-AI-Summaries-In-Facebook-Marketplace-Partner-Listings-Could/m-p/35041639/highlight/true#M2552933
If you or anyone else is actually seeing summaries on the eBay website or in the eBay app explicitly designated as created by eBay.AI, I'd definitely be interested and would appreciate a screenshot if anyone is willing to share!
On the subject of descriptions being hidden behind a "see full description" link in the app, you might find this discussion from 2023 useful - it seems to be highly influenced by whether you use certain kinds of custom HTML in your listings.
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/interesting-ebay-app-hides-seller-description-but-shows-AI/td-p/33937449/highlight/true
mamacassidy
OP1 year ago@valueaddedresource
Yes, it says it. This is the listing that shows up on the app for a suit I sold a couple of days ago.
mamacassidy
OP1 year agoWell, @kickin.assets , the lack of responses tells me I guess we can't turn it off for now, lol
kickin.assets
·1 year ago@mamacassidy
Good question! I would like to know if anyone knows if there’s an opt out because it can make some listings challenging if working on phone!
Hopefully someone comes along with knowledge of this!
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