Artificial intelligence is everywhere, affecting our daily lives in ways almost no one predicted. As with any breakthrough technology, most of us have a lot to learn when it comes to understanding how AI can work for and against us.
I was at a seminar recently where the president of the California Mortgage Association, Brad Laddusaw, grabbed our attention by showing us a video where Arnold Schwarzenegger talked in detail about how awesome Brad is.
If the title of Brad’s talk hadn’t mentioned AI, I would have thought Brad and Arnold actually knew each other. The video showed Schwarzenegger looking like himself and talking in his recognizable Austrian accent saying, “Brad’s a tough guy and I respect tough guys.” But the whole thing was a deep fake created by artificial intelligence.
People who want to mislead others now have unbelievably powerful tools at their disposal. This is the dark side of AI.
It’s scary how easily people can use AI to deceive us by digitally manipulating the traits of people we know. Before AI, our biggest worry in a real estate fraud was the fear that a hacker would gain access to an email account and pass themselves off as someone else. This is still a problem, certainly, but with AI, the stakes are even higher.
Prospective home buyers and prospective renters need to be sure they are getting what they pay for and that they are sending money to a bank and not a thief posing as a bank.
People often start home searches online. With the technology currently available, people can use AI to show a vacant property as though it’s been staged with high-end furniture and beautiful art. They can even add people to the picture or video. As they move from showcasing the inside of the property to the outside, AI can show the house with a new paint job of an entirely different color than the one that actually exists.
I used to live next to a house painted Pepto-Bismol pink. If that house were on the market today, the listing agent might show the house in a nice tan or gray. With AI, you can repaint a house without opening a can of paint, refurnish a house without hiring movers, and replace landscaping in the dead of winter.
It’s one thing to use AI to remove dirty dishes from a picture of a kitchen sink. It’s quite another to create a bogus view from the kitchen window. If people misrepresent the condition of a property, their dishonesty will almost always be uncovered when a potential homebuyer visits the property for a walkthrough. However, on rare occasions, people buy property based on photos and videos alone. And when renters are moving to a new area, they sometimes need to secure housing without an in-person visit.
State legislators are debating whether they should create a statute requiring disclosure of photo manipulation – and not just for real estate. The challenge is to figure out how much manipulation is too much. On a portrait, would a photographer have to disclose removing a pimple that would have disappeared on its own in a day or two?
If a manipulation warning is added to every single photo or video with any editing at all, it will turn out like the Prop. 65 warnings against exposure to cancer-causing chemicals. According to the Prop. 65 notices, everywhere I go and everything I buy puts me at higher risk for cancer. And that’s the problem. Notices like this become white noise and we ignore them.
How we tell fact from fiction in the age of artificial intelligence is only going to get harder. In real estate, the antidote is to work with a Realtor you know and trust. Our personal relationships will help us navigate this quickly changing world.
If you have questions about property management or real estate, please contact me at [email protected] or call (707) 462-4000. If you have an idea for a future column, share it with me and if I use it, I’ll send you a $25 gift certificate to Schat’s Bakery.
Dick Selzer is a real estate broker who has been in the business for more than 45 years. The opinions expressed here are his and do not necessarily represent his affiliated organizations.
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