On this week's show, recorded live at Atmosphere Seattle on the shores of Lake Union, Zillow Senior Vice President of Engineering Toby Roberts joins us to talk about what AI is doing to the business of buying and selling homes.

The show was recorded in partnership with Real Estate At Work, the networking group hosted by Leka Devatha, a broker with Real Residential and founder of the redevelopment firm Rehabit Homes, in front of a room of brokers, investors and technologists.

Roberts runs Zillow's core technology with a team of about 650 engineers. He says AI agents will work as a copilot for real estate agents rather than replace them — freeing up their time for the more human aspects of the job, helping people navigate the biggest transaction of their lives. We also talk about the line between AI and reality in home listings, and the tech industry's sudden push to slow AI down.

Then it's the GeekWire Trivia Challenge: four extraordinary Zillow listings for unusual buildings converted into homes. Three are real. One is an AI deepfake. Check out the handout here with the four listings, and see if you can tell the difference.

With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook. Edited and produced by Curt Milton.

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This week: A study commissioned by the City of Seattle warns that the city is not in decline but is in danger, finding that 10 companies, nine of them in tech, pay three-quarters of the payroll tax on large employers, and that the tax structure uniquely penalizes the hiring of senior, high-compensation workers.

The report says Seattle should be most concerned about AI but most active in cleantech, the one industry the city can actually shape, since it owns the electric utility and controls permitting, building codes and land use.

Meanwhile, the Seattle Times and Newsday sue Microsoft and OpenAI, accusing them of copying hundreds of thousands of articles to train their AI models, putting Microsoft's hometown paper against a company that helps fund some of its journalism.

And Apple's first foldable arrives as the iPhone Duo, reviving the name of the dual-screen phone Microsoft gave up on in 2023, with Surface fans arguing Apple took more than the name.

Which leads us to a new GeekWire Trivia Challenge on the Microsoft products that Apple later turned into categories.

Upcoming Event: GeekWire, in partnership with Real Estate at Work, is recording the GeekWire Podcast live at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16, with Toby Roberts, SVP of Engineering at Zillow. Grab a ticket.

With John Cook and Todd Bishop. Edited by Curt Milton. Music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week: The NBA suspends former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for a year and hits the Clippers with $30 million in fines and five lost draft picks over allegedly sham endorsement deals for Kawhi Leonard, drawing comparisons to the Microsoft antitrust era.

A new Redfin report says San Francisco's housing market is booming on AI wealth while Seattle slumps, with the Bay Area-to-Seattle migration pipeline nearly dried up.

And the Seahawks sale to the Khosla family officially closes, ending the Paul Allen era, with two familiar Seattle tech names surfacing in the new ownership group.

Plus, the return of the GeekWire Trivia Challenge.

Related Stories and Links

Ballmer / Clippers

• NBA suspends Steve Ballmer for 1 year, fines L.A. Clippers $30M over salary-cap scheme
• NBA announces penalties and findings arising from investigation of LA Clippers and Kawhi Leonard — NBA
• Read the NBA's Report on Clippers, Kawhi Leonard, and Aspiration — Front Office Sports
• NBA announces punishments for Clippers after Kawhi inquiry — ESPN
• The Briefcase, Ballmer's Social Network and Aspiration's House of Cards: Kawhi-Gate Part VII — Pablo Torre Finds Out

Redfin / SF vs. Seattle housing

• AI wealth fuels San Francisco's housing boom while tech layoffs weigh down Seattle
• Uber laying off 93 Washington state workers, hitting engineer and management roles at Seattle office
• Qualtrics cut 117 jobs tied to Seattle headquarters, new filing shows

Seahawks sale

• Two familiar Seattle tech figures turn up on Seahawks co-owner list as sale is finalized
• 'I'm the 12th man ... I want to represent that': New Seahawks co-owner with deep Seattle tech roots
• What to know about Vinod Khosla, the Silicon Valley legend whose family is buying the Seahawks
• Apptio co-founders reunite to launch enterprise AI startup Thira with $21M in funding led by Madrona

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