How I'm using AI to protect Aussie renters

Renting is horrible in Australia.

And I'm not even talking about the outrageous rent prices.

In my state, if a property goes up for sale, landlords can end our tenancy with just 30 days' notice. Yep, only 30 frickin' days.

We're pretty powerless, yes! But after reading hundreds of rental contracts, you do get used to it. Eventually, you start becoming aware of your own rights for protection.

But not me. I have absolutely no clue if the contract I signed abides by local state laws. And I'm not alone. There are countless first-time renters out there just as clueless!

Which is why I built a custom GPT called Aussie Lease Advisor.

Custom GPTs

Let’s first explore what a custom GPT is.

It's just like ChatGPT, but with a pre-configured prompt. Instead of starting from scratch, custom GPTs already have a specific role and task to help users. Plus, you can add extra knowledge for the GPT agent to use when answering the questions of the users.

Even better, people have been making their custom GPTs public. There’s a store you can visit and explore.

Unfortunately, this feature is only available on the paid version of ChatGPT. I had to subscribe just to create my custom GPT.

Building the Thing

Now that we know what a custom GPT is, how do you build one?

It's actually extremely simple. You only need to worry about 2 things (for now):

• Prompt

• Knowledge

In simple terms, the prompt instructs what you need the agent to do when users interact with your custom GPT. But sometimes, the agent won't have an answer to your question. This is where the knowledge comes in. It's an extra layer of knowledge on top of what the agent already knows about the web!

Now, when you create your custom GPT, you have 2 options. You can either (1) ask the custom GPT agent for help (neat!), or you can (2) configure the GPT yourself. If you are a beginner, I would suggest doing the former. I tested it out, and it seems promising.

In this blog, we’ll focus on manually configuring the GPT.

Metadata

I used DALL-E to create my (cute) GPT photo. It's a kangaroo holding a lease contract with the Sydney Opera House in the background. I then picked a generic name (I know!) and an equally generic description for the GPT.

All of those don't really affect how the GPT behaves, so anything goes. But if you want to market your GPT better, make sure the copy is good enough!

Prompt

As mentioned, this defines how your GPT behaves.

I described what the agent's role is. And I even made it extremely specific by specifying who the expected users are. I then tasked it with asking for the user's rental contract unless they immediately ask specific questions about rental policies. The rest of the prompt is me yapping about expectations from the agent.

Overall, the prompt looks like this:

The GPT, named Aussie Lease Advisor, assists Australian renters, especially migrants and first-time renters, in understanding and navigating their residential tenancy agreements. Initially, it prompts users to upload their residential tenancy agreement for a personalized review. It then explains basic terms, highlights important clauses, and guides interactions with landlords or property managers. The GPT focuses on clarifying legal jargon, ensuring renters are aware of their rights and responsibilities, and helping them make informed decisions. It provides answers to common questions about maintenance responsibilities, bond procedures, key lease agreement clauses, and landlord entry rights, among other topics. Additionally, it integrates specific state legislation to provide accurate, localized, and up-to-date advice.

Notice the last sentence is about integrating some legislation documents. This is where the knowledge base comes in. It’s important for the agent to know that it can use any of the documents I uploaded to craft its answer.

Conversation Starters

I love this feature. I prepared ready-made frequently asked questions for the users to select from. No more wasted time typing the same questions over and over again.

I did ask ChatGPT what it thinks the 3 most popular questions are from clueless renters like me. Here's what it came up with:

1. What are my rights regarding urgent repairs in my rental?

2. How can I resolve a dispute with my landlord over repairs?

3. What are the rules around rent increases in my state?

Not bad.

Oh, and of course, the last one isn't really a question but more like a starter statement. It not only prompts the user to upload their rental contract, but also let's them know they can do that!

Knowledge

Now, this is a neat feature. You can upload any type of file as the agent's knowledge base, with a limit of 512 MB per file and a total cap of 10 GB for the GPT creator.

As you can see in the image below, I uploaded all of the related legislations about leasing for every state in Australia. This way, when the agent answers any question from the user, it will cross-check its answer with the policies.

Another awesome feature is the ability to configure the agent to browse the web. If it can't find an answer in its knowledge base, it will search online.

Testing the Thing

Honestly, I'm satisfied. I uploaded our super long tenancy agreement and it automatically summarized it for us. I even double checked, and all of the information shown were accurate!

You just have to see the Aussie Lease Advisor do its thing!

I even asked it a question if any parts of the contract violates state legislation. The answer was alright, but way too long. I was hoping for a more straightforward yes-or-no answer. (don’t worry, there were no violations... phew). Totally fixable in the prompt, especially if we want short and straightforward answers!

Retrospective

I'm blown away by how a simple, short prompt created such a powerful tool. Of course, most of the heavy lifting is done by the base GPT-4o LLM. Essentially, we just tweaked ChatGPT to address a specific, niche problem.

If you haven't explored custom GPTs yet, you need to do it RIGHT NOW! There are so many incredible projects out there. Seriously, you can even create a full-blown website just by chatting with an agent!

Overall, it's a great tool for small projects like mine. I'm curious to see if configuring the GPT to handle more complex tasks will become more challenging. We'll have to wait and see. Stay tuned!

Also, if you’re enjoying this, can you do me a favor and forward it to a friend? Thanks.