What, after all, is a bit of light fraud, if it saves an estate agent some time?

Quite a few times I've seen permanent light fixtures that don't exist, vents that don't exist, room sizes that are obviously implied to be much larger than reality (e.g. they show a full-size bed, but there's only like 4 feet of space in that location), etc.

I don't particularly mind fake furniture, but if it's very much not to scale I think it's pushing "probably fraud". And when permanent fixtures are fabricated, "blatant fraud, penalize immediately, revoke license on repeats". Using an automated tool does not absolve you of consequences, particularly one nigh-universally well-known to fabricate things.

Oh, and little touches like an ugly fence being replaced by a sweeping view of a beach or a mountain range.

lol. Minor touchups!

Anything which could have a material impact on the sale price which is misrepresented in images is fraud, plain and simple.

I was seeing the fake light fixtures in listing photos at least four years ago.

Fake furniture is bad enough (the scale issue you mention is the main problem) but fake parts of the house should definitely be illegal.

I'm not sure if you're being serious but it should be illegal because they're producing images that are often not physically possible. At least if an agent stages an apartment with real furniture they are doing something a tenant really could do. But these AI images tend to change the physical dimensions of a room, use images of furniture that don't make sense dimensionally, shift the "natural" light of the room in a way that the sun will never provide and sometimes even change the view through the windows of the room.

I think their last sentence is a pretty clear indicator that they were not being serious.

As with bitcoin fans before them, Poe's Law is in full effect with the AI boosters.

Honestly, given the dangerously unmitigated power of Claude Mythos, we should really look into arresting the people who have failed to ask Claude to cure cancer already.

‘Catfishing is fine’

I think the real issue here is lack of progress in AR technology. Tenants may be disappointed by the difference between marketing material and reality, but that can be easily solved by AR glasses that the tenants can wear 24/7 to make the apartment look just like in marketing material, perhaps for a small monthly subscription fee. It's cheaper than renovation, that's for sure.

Mark Zuckerberg should take note.

Now you're thinking like a silicon valley founder! Brilliant! Call the company "Lipstyk" as in the old phrase about lipstick on a pig.

/s?

I can’t tell through text if you’re being sarcastic or not. So I’ll add some context for fun. Ran into this a few weeks ago apartment shopping with a friend. AI images of multiple apartments had:

- Relocated the sink from the back counter to the kitchen island.

- Added outlets that didn’t exist.

- Displayed furniture layouts that were not possible in the actual space. That couch looks great in that spot, except when you explore further you realize it’s sitting right up against the master bedroom’s door.

To that last point, no stager would lay it out that way because anyone viewing the apartment would take them to task for you know… having to drag a couch out of the way to open their bedroom door. Staging layouts have always been more pretty than practical but AI staging regularly puts functionally DOA layouts on display.

As far as I’m concerned it’s disingenuous at best, and deception realistically. The process is broken while this slop is in there.

As a rule of thumb, if it is just replacing staging, I don’t have an issue with it. A staged apartment also isn’t “real” so if the AI isn’t adding windows and outlets that don’t exist it’s functionally equivalent to staging.

Most real estate agents are going to stage a house or condo for real regardless because people are really going to go there, not just look at pictures online or show up with a VR headset. So in practice this is only going to affect rental units that are not staged.

I imagine this is a much larger problem in high turnover rental markets.

Fraud is not the same as productivity buddy

The circa 2026 tech industry c-suite crowd respectfully, but vigorously, disagrees.

This is satire, correct?

It.... took me awhile to register that sarcasm. Bravo.