Photo of a toilet airbnb sent in justification for leaving damages. they are demanding 1700$ over this. It feels inconsistent with AI qualities like the water dripping from the toilet but no splashes. the entire house should flood at this point. and the door handle is at eye level
from r/isthisAI
There are few things that give me the heebie-jeebies more than overflowing toilets, burst pipes, and water damage. Ditto receiving a hefty, unexpected fee. So I wonder, how would it feel to be on the receiving end of both?
One Redditor can answer this question, though only thanks to the smoke and mirrors economy of digital manipulation. Apparently, they found themselves on the wrong end of an Airbnb host—”one of the biggest Airbnb companies of their state in Australia”—who attempted to get them to cough up $1,700 for an overflowed toilet, the evidence for which was, you guessed it, AI-generated.
So thanks, AI, in addition to making our precious PC memory very expensive, you’ve also made it very easy for people to attempt to fleece others using the humble commode.
Thankfully, it’s AI that can also come to the rescue here, as Gemini is able to spot its own SynthID watermark in the fake image. Not that it wasn’t suspected in the first place, given the Reddit post was shared on r/isthisAI.
This story has a happy ending, anyway:
“Good news everyone! I had this case resolved and deemed ineligible for the reimbursement they asked for… Also another detail I forgot to mention is that there is a floor underneath this one so if there are a few inches of water on the ground the entire first floor should be an aquarium!”
Regardless of how things went in this particular case, I’m using this as a reminder for myself: take pictures and record videos of any Airbnbs you stop at just before you leave. Better to be safe than sorry.