Add real estate listings to the things we may no longer be able to trust thanks to artificial intelligence. While staging photos of properties for sale with premium lighting and rented furniture has been in practice for years, AI has taken it to a whole new level, and not necessarily in a good way.
People have begun using AI to make photos in property listings look way better than they actually are or hide real issues. Agents and buyers have arrived at a property to find they had been seriously duped by photos that hid water stains or structural issues like holes in the walls. It’s gotten bad enough that California passed a law to make it illegal.
Beginning Jan. 1 of this year, real estate listings in California must disclose if any of the images shown have been digitally altered. The unaltered version of the image must also be shared. Many have applauded the decision, saying it’s one thing to spruce up a listing but another to misleadingly alter it. “It’s OK for the AI to pick up a shirt from the bed and toys from the floor,” Sub Gautam, who created a photo-enhancing AI tool, told Business Insider. “It’s not OK for an AI to put back a ripped wallpaper.”
