Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

NYC may require landlords and realtors to disclose the use of AI in listings

petapixel.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 285 posts

Re: NYC may require landlords and realtors to disclose the use of AI in listings

#121

Post by KennyBlanken »

filoleg wrote: post #103
plants wrote: post #5

This is awesome! StreetEasy is how many New Yorkers find apartments. In the past few years, it has been flooded with AI-staged apartments. The AI stagings warp the room to fit furniture that would 100% certainly not fit there. It’s deceptive, and I’m glad it at least requires disclosure now (although I wish it were fully banned)

Not going to lie, I wish they also added a square footage as a legal requirement too. It is entirely baffling to me as to why, but NYC is the only major city in the US I've ever lived in where it is genuinely a problem. In all other cities, I had no issues with that, pretty much every single posting online had square footage. Meanwhile, on StreetEasy (and other platforms listing NYC rental units), looking for apartme…

> I cannot think of a logical reason to not provide that information.

Because it's to an extreme degree a landlord's market and thus none of them have any incentive to do more than the bare minimum?

Even if it was listed everyone would "stretch" things by including closets and the like. The only way it would work is if the city did the measurements and maintained a database...but then you'd have people bribing the inspectors. they already do it over fire code.

Renting an apartment should require at a minimum registration, inspection (fire code - window/egress, detectors, and ideally an extinguisher and fire blanket), proof of insurance, and some sort of bond per unit that the city holds onto and uses for emergency code compliance repairs.

Re: NYC may require landlords and realtors to disclose the use of AI in listings

#122

Post by enraged_camel »

Eridrus wrote: post #117
weakfish wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s directing the city to treat it as false advertising in existing law if I understand correctly

Right, which is why all we're going to get it a label saying that AI was used (or maybe landlords will try to fly through on the label of "virtually staged" that they've been using). Existing law doesn't have the authority to ban all AI images as inherently deceptive, and DCWP isn't going to be spending a bunch of time prosecuting individual images. I agree with Mamdani that these images are often deceptive and misle…

I take it you are a lawyer specializing in NY real estate law, then? Would be interesting to hear a more detailed analysis if so.

Re: NYC may require landlords and realtors to disclose the use of AI in listings

#123

Post by eloisius »

evolve2k wrote: post #18
plants wrote: post #5

This is awesome! StreetEasy is how many New Yorkers find apartments. In the past few years, it has been flooded with AI-staged apartments. The AI stagings warp the room to fit furniture that would 100% certainly not fit there. It’s deceptive, and I’m glad it at least requires disclosure now (although I wish it were fully banned)

During the press conference he finished with a light joke that was something like “after all it’s meant to be Street Easy not Street Hard”. I assumed that was an app, your post unintentionally closed the loop for me! Agree AI modified listing make no sense to allow; regulation here is making up for platform failure.

Apartment hunting is an unpleasant chore I haven’t had to do since 2022. It hadn’t even occurred to me that AI slop would be the norm. I really have lived to see man-made horrors beyond my comprehension.

Re: NYC may require landlords and realtors to disclose the use of AI in listings

#124

Post by LgWoodenBadger »

hbarka wrote: post #111
filoleg wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not going to lie, I wish they also added a square footage as a legal requirement too. It is entirely baffling to me as to why, but NYC is the only major city in the US I've ever lived in where it is genuinely a problem. In all other cities, I had no issues with that, pretty much every single posting online had square footage. Meanwhile, on StreetEasy (and other platforms listing NYC rental units), looking for apartme…

> and I cannot think of a logical reason to not provide that information. The reason is simple. Omission is deception.

If it had a “good” square footage, it would be touted front and center. Because it’s not, you know it doesn’t.

I see this all the time with motorcycle PPE. If something was CE A, AA, or AAA rated, it’d be at the top of the description/specs. When it’s not, I know it’s not so I just move on.

Re: NYC may require landlords and realtors to disclose the use of AI in listings

#125

Post by drivingmenuts »

LgWoodenBadger wrote: post #124
hbarka wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and I cannot think of a logical reason to not provide that information. The reason is simple. Omission is deception.

If it had a “good” square footage, it would be touted front and center. Because it’s not, you know it doesn’t. I see this all the time with motorcycle PPE. If something was CE A, AA, or AAA rated, it’d be at the top of the description/specs. When it’s not, I know it’s not so I just move on.

I wish that e-bike ads had the classification. The bike classes are well-defined AFAIK - it's the class legality that's regional, if any. Right now, they're actively helping riders skirt/evade the laws.

Re: NYC may require landlords and realtors to disclose the use of AI in listings

#126

Post by sssilver »

Gigachad wrote: post #72
culi wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iPhones use a variety of AI (though not LLM) techniques every time you take a photo. For example they use semantic segmentation where they recognize different aspects of a photo (faces, skies, skin tones, etc) and process them differently

They do a sort of automatic Lightroom edit playing with colors, shadows and masking. They do not invent things that do not exist.

They absolutely do — see https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/samsung-galaxys-beloved-m...

Re: NYC may require landlords and realtors to disclose the use of AI in listings

#127

Post by Jcampuzano2 »

wmf wrote: post #36
DangitBobby wrote: post #23

HN title is missing the operative word "secretly". The real title: > Mayor Mamdani Says Landlords Can’t Secretly Use AI Images to Advertise Properties The article contents align with the real title: you just disclose AI usage when advertising rentals.

That kind of regulation has failed over and over. The obvious outcome is that every listing will have misleading AI "photos".

Define "failed".

If what ends up happening is that every listing has misleading AI photos but they have to disclose it, then also what ends up happening is nobody trusts them anymore. Consumers will know by default to not trust the photos.

In my eyes, thats a win since that's a better outcome than them secretly using AI photos.

Of course in my ideal world it would be outlawed altogether, But even if they were still allowed to use AI photos but were forced to disclose it, that's still a good first step.

Re: NYC may require landlords and realtors to disclose the use of AI in listings

#128

Post by wmf »

PeterHolzwarth wrote: post #80
wmf wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every photo will be AI-enhanced and correctly labeled as such. Just like every Web site has a cookie warning.

so therefore don't create laws or pass city ordinances? I don't understand your logic.

If you want a particular outcome, legislate that outcome.

Re: NYC may require landlords and realtors to disclose the use of AI in listings

#130

Post by marshray »

AlienRobot wrote: post #39
wmf wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That kind of regulation has failed over and over. The obvious outcome is that every listing will have misleading AI "photos".

Come on, there is no such thing as "trace amounts of AI" in a photo of a building.

There's a whole spectrum of things built into phone cameras these days like color correction and edge/sharpness enhancement where whether or not it's advertised as "AI" comes down to marketing.
Post reply on HN