Recently, a lot of attention has been given to the use of artificial intelligence to generate photos used in real estate photography.
Is it real? Is it fake? Sometimes it’s hard to tell.
A new law in California seeks to set the record straight and inform would-be house buyers when AI is in use.
According to Assembly Bill 723, which went into effect on Jan. 1, real estate agents and brokers are obligated to include a “reasonably conspicuous” statement “disclosing that the image has been altered” when listing photos have been modified using editing software or artificial intelligence.
The law also mandates that if artificial intelligence is used, responsible parties must “link to a publicly accessible internet website, URL, or QR code that includes, and clearly identifies, the original, unaltered image”.
HouseDigest noted that the increasing use of AI-enhanced real estate photography isn’t just affecting California — it’s nationwide. More and more house hunters are finding virtually staged photos and AI walkthroughs when they log on to sites such as Zillow or Redfin, HouseDigest said.
Some Photos Can Be Misleading
In the past, rooms commonly were brightened with a flash and fisheye lenses made rooms appear more spacious, but real estate photography has entered a world where listing photos are becoming distorted and misleading with the help of AI, HouseDigest said.
While AI is becoming more commonplace, growing consumer concerns over the new technology are also mounting. All signs point to AI sticking around and in the case of real estate photography, HouseDigest said altered images often can be misleading and cause confusion for home buyers.
“I’ve been at a few conferences over the past few weeks, and just anecdotally speaking, we’ll ask out of 100 people in the audience how many are using AI, and I’d say 80 to 90 percent of people raise their hand. We are seeing this huge uptick in people using it,” Dan Weisman, Director of Innovation Strategy at the National Association of Realtors (NAR), told Wired.
The reason is simple. Where it used to cost a fortune to get a listing staged or even virtually staged, a Realtor now can plug photos into ChatGPT for a similar result for free.
It seems that most states are lagging behind on laws mandating disclosure for AI-altered real estate photography.
But states such as Colorado and New York are pushing for different guardrails to protect people against potential harm from AI-generated content.
With the rate at which real estate listings are being affected by misleading AI, HouseDigest said it’s only a matter of time before more states adopt a similar law to California’s Assembly Bill 723.
