The RealReal’s Athena system helps validate goods submitted for resale, cutting down the timeline to list them for sale
By Jennifer Williams of The WSJ.
I have done many posts on both AI and fakes over the years. So this article touches on two regular topics. After some excerpts from this article I have a links to two of those posts which then have links to all the posts I have done on both AI and fakes. Plus a comment from the famous psychiatrist Dr. Van Pelt.
The company has "an AI-infused program . . . Called Athena" [that] "helps discern authentic products from fakes."
"Athena’s focus so far is designers and brands such as Jimmy Choo and Alice + Olivia, ones that are less challenging to authenticate. But with a year’s worth of learning, Athena’s reach is expanding this year into midtier and high-end luxury items and with that, executives say it could save the company millions of dollars. For one, the AI assistance means the company doesn’t have to hire as many people as it grows, said Chief Financial Officer Ajay Gopal. It will also cut the timeline to list an item for sale by as much as 50%, which executives see as critical to keeping sellers happy and moving through inventory at a faster clip."
"One uses a bluetooth-connected measuring tape to automatically capture dimensions of Frame pants. Another wields a roughly 5-pound device that looks similar to a speed gun to determine whether the hardware on an Hermès Birkin handbag suggests it’s real. Elsewhere in the warehouse, an authenticator uses a device smaller than a stapler to scan a Louis Vuitton tote to help determine whether the leather, stitching and branding are authentic."
"When items such as a pair of Frame pants and a Birkin bag arrive at the warehouse, they are added to The RealReal’s inventory of millions of items. Clothing and accessories are measured and their condition assessed, meanwhile photos capture the garment’s tags to feed to Athena, which is working in the background to help automatically authenticate and populate listing details such as size and the fabric used. The tech also assigns a counterfeiting risk score based on the company’s years of collecting information on real and fake items."
One worker is "using The RealReal’s microimaging AI tool called Vision, which takes snaps of various parts of the bag and compares them with the millions of images in The RealReal’s repository, to make comparisons."
"Athena also tells [authenticator Tetiana] Byndiu that the bag meets expectations for the real thing, including the metal closure, the lack of card slots and the presence of coated canvas."
"Executives expect Athena to cut the time it takes for an item to go from a loading dock to posted for sale to seven days on average from 14 now, saving a couple of dollars on every sale."
Related posts:
Data Centers Are a ‘Gold Rush’ for Construction Workers Surging demand means six-figure pay and more perks (2025) (this link has links to all the posts I have done on AI and the economy)
Renters Are Conning Their Way Into Luxury Apartments: Atlanta, where up to half of rental applications contain fraudulent information, is epicenter of national surge in these scams (2025) (this link has links to all the posts that I have done on fakes)
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