“What we are seeing is experimentation on the edges, mostly in consumer marketing or social media content,” Kevin Greene, the general manager of real estate solutions for a data solutions company, told Slate. “The ability to generate a full property listing from scratch is here, but it’s not being used in the MLS.” (MLS stands for “multiple listing service,” a private digital database that realtors and brokers use to circulate listings.)
Greene says most property agents are using A.I. to generate the descriptions for these listings, something he argues does save them a lot of time. In fact, he believes that it’s the “subtle” use of this tech that should be more concerning for buyers and renters.
“The bigger risk isn’t full fabrication; it’s subtle manipulation. Tools that can brighten a photo can also remove power lines, add trees, or replace grass with a pool—and that’s where things start to cross the line,” he said. “What matters most is whether that content reflects ‘ground truth data,’ which means the verified, factual attributes of a property drawn from public records, imagery, and on-site validation.”
Derek Leben, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University who teaches courses on A.I. and ethics, agrees that using A.I. language models to render descriptions of a house is not irresponsible, but that presenting images that do not live up to reality is deceptive.
“If you provide information that’s misleading, that’s an instance of deceptive practice,” Leben explained. “In traditional ethics law, this happens around fraud or false advertising. For example, if a company shows a picture in their ad of a cheeseburger, but it’s not a real cheeseburger and it looks nothing like a cheeseburger you’d order in the restaurant, is that falsified information? Not really. You’re not giving lies. It’s not untrue, but it’s perhaps misleading.”
And, as Leben notes, these practices can result in wasting people’s time if they go and tour the place. In the worst-case scenario, a client can enter a contract under false premises.
“In cases where people buy properties sight unseen, it would be a stronger case that they made that contract under misleading pretenses and for it to be null and void,” Leben said.
For real estate photographers, he is concerned about the displacement of their work. “The ‘A.I. is going to take our jobs’ worry is real, and we call this job displacement.”
Torres and his peers are also concerned about widespread A.I. adoption, namely how easy it may seem for agents to overlook hiring professional photographers for listings. “In the future, agents will only need to know from which angle to take each photo—something they can learn in just a few hours with a cheap tripod—and leave the editing to A.I.,” he said. “It won’t be the same result as a professional photographer, but it will be good enough for the listing to look decent.”
