Mayor Mamdani Says Landlords Can't Use AI Images to Advertise

New York’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has kicked off yet another fight, and this time the villains in the comment section are landlords with suspiciously gorgeous listing photos. His new Rental Ripoff Report pushes for rental ads to disclose when images were altered by artificial intelligence, after tenants told the city about apartments that looked dreamy online but turned out to come with mold, pests, mystery fees, and a whole lot of regret. For many readers, this was less “policy update” and more finally, someone said it.

The loudest cheers came from renters who say apartment sites like StreetEasy have become a carnival of fake sparkle. One commenter complained that computer-made staging makes tiny rooms look big enough for furniture that would “100% certainly not fit,” which is exactly the kind of bait-and-switch that sends people into a spiral after signing a lease from afar. Another person took the debate even further, arguing AI should be banned from gambling, dating, hiring, and advertising too, because the real problem isn’t the tool — it’s the humans using it. That line practically wrote the internet’s slogan for the day.

But of course, the thread had drama. Some people asked whether the city can even do this at all, while others wondered where the line is: if your phone automatically improves a photo, is that now “AI” too? One practical voice said they’re actually fine with digitally staged rooms as long as it’s labeled. So yes, the comments turned into a messy housing morality play: renters yelling “catfish listing,” skeptics nitpicking definitions, and everyone agreeing on one thing — nobody wants to tour a palace online and arrive at a shoebox offline.