NYC Wants Landlords To Disclose AI-Edited Listing Photos—Could Your City Be Next?

Apartment hunters in New York City may soon get a warning when the home they’re scrolling looks a little too good to be true.The city is moving to require rental listings to disclose photos that have been altered using artificial intelligence or other digital tools, targeting a new version of an old problem: making something look better online than it does in real life.The practice, sometimes called “housefishing” or “AI real estate slop,” has rapidly evolved in lockstep with AI technology, advancing from simple retouches to what lawmakers have described as “marketing fiction."“You shouldn't have to worry whether or not the apartment you are viewing online is real,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said announcing the rule. “After all, it's called StreetEasy, not ‘StreetHard.’”Why NYC is treating altered photos as a renter-protection issueThe rule is one of 23 actions in the city’s new Rental Ripoff Report, developed from the feedback of more than 2,400 New Yorkers in hearings, listening sessions, and online testimony earlier this year.Loading...The Rental Ripoff Hearings were a key campaign promise of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and the report marks the first concrete policy package to emerge from ...