Finding an apartment in New York was already brutal. Now generative AI is adding a fresh layer of deception to the process, and renters are paying the price.
Joyce, a native New Yorker hunting for her first solo place, thought she’d found the one. The listing showed a spacious Manhattan studio with a fireplace, a renovated kitchen, big windows. She rushed to the viewing — and walked into a completely different apartment. Smaller. Missing the fireplace. The stove had no knobs. “There’s the idea of the apartment that we saw in the pictures,” she said, “and then there was the apartment itself.”
Her friend had a theory: “We should’ve known it was AI because there was a plant on the gas stove in the picture.”
Virtual staging isn’t new — agents have been dressing up listing photos for years. But AI tools like ChatGPT make it trivially easy to generate photorealistic furniture, decor, and even architectural features that don’t exist. The result: listings that look convincing at first glance but fall apart under scrutiny.
Some real estate agents use these tools responsibly — to show buyers how a space could look with updated furniture. Others cross the line into outright deception. One Florida agent showed us how she uses ChatGPT to modernize listing photos, but said she doesn’t put the AI versions in actual listings. “There’s a lawsuit waiting to happen,” she said.
New York recently passed a law requiring disclosure of AI use in ads, but it mostly targets synthetic performers and deepfakes. AI-slapped furniture in a rental listing? That’s a gray area. For now, renters are on their own — scrutinizing every photo for wonky plants and impossible kitchens before they waste a Saturday on a viewing.
