Binding law — in force AI-adjacent law
Mark an AI-altered real estate listing image as altered and link the unaltered original (California AB 723)
From 2026-01-01, a real estate broker or salesperson, or a person acting on their behalf, who includes a digitally altered image in an advertisement or promotional material for the sale of real property must include a reasonably conspicuous statement, on or adjacent to the image, that it has been altered, and a link to a publicly accessible website, URL or QR code that includes and clearly identifies the original, unaltered image; on a website they control, they post the unaltered version (or link it) (B&P 10140.8(a)). A digitally altered image is one altered through photo editing software or artificial intelligence to add, remove or change elements such as furniture, fixtures, flooring, paint, landscape, views or neighboring properties; lighting, cropping, colour correction and similar adjustments that do not change the representation are not (10140.8(b)). Detect listing code that alters images with AI and publishes them without the statement and the original.
Trust and provenance not reviewed by a lawyer · audit-grade · source verified 4 Oct 2026 · release 2026.10.04.3
- Lane
- Binding law — in force In force: applies since 1 Jan 2026
- Official source
- Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code 10140.8(a)(1) · captured 4 Oct 2026 · anchor hash (SHA-256)
03353e5ed043…· 3 more anchors in the data release - Verification
- Quoted text found word for word in the captured official document (4 Oct 2026). Source last verified 4 Oct 2026: checked against the captured official document.
- Data release
- Data release 2026.10.04.3, data as of 4 Oct 2026, schema 0.3.10.
- Legal review
- Not reviewed by a lawyer. TwinEthos derived this rule from the official text it cites: treat it as research to check against that text; it is not legal advice. No TwinEthos rule has been legally reviewed yet. Open questions for counsel on this rule: 1.
- Audit standard
- Audit-grade: meets all 10 checks of the TwinEthos audit standard that apply to it. The audit standard is TwinEthos's own quality bar for provenance, dates, applicability, detectors, fixtures, remediation and licences; it is not a legal review.
- Detectors
1 detector (code pattern), experimental: written from the rule's text and not yet measured for precision on real code, so treat a hit as a lead to verify.
Known limits:
- Images altered by hand in desktop software and uploaded
- Disclosures added by a third-party portal
- The disclosure may be added by a listing template or MLS export in another file; check the rendering path before reporting.
Who it applies to
- Duty falls on: individual professional, organization
- Sectors: housing
- California real estate brokers and salespersons, and persons acting on their behalf (including listing and virtual-staging tools used for them), who include a digitally altered image, altered with photo editing software or AI, in an advertisement or promotional material for the sale of real property. In force 2026-01-01.
- Not covered:
- Images where only lighting, sharpening, white balance, color correction, angle, straightening, cropping, exposure, or other common photo editing adjustments are made that do not change the representation of the real property (10140.8(b)(2))
- Whether it applies depends on facts outside the code; a person has to decide.
The guard to add
Mark every AI-altered listing image as altered, on or next to the image, and link it to the stored, clearly identified original.
The image-edit step keeps the original and marks the output as altered; the listing renderer and the MLS or portal export add the statement 'This image has been digitally altered. View the original at <url>' (or a QR code) on or adjacent to each altered image, and the original stays published at that URL; common adjustments that do not change the representation (lighting, cropping, colour correction) are not marked.
Where it goes: 9 AI output handling, 1 application source code, 14 user-facing text.
What this provision adds:
- The statement must say the unaltered images can be accessed on the linked website, URL or QR code, and be reasonably conspicuous on or adjacent to the image.
Example (Python listing service + OpenAI images), before:
staged = client.images.edit(model='gpt-image-1', image=open(photo, 'rb'), prompt='virtually stage this living room')
listing.photos.append(upload(staged))After:
staged = client.images.edit(model='gpt-image-1', image=open(photo, 'rb'), prompt='virtually stage this living room')
original_url = upload(photo, public=True)
listing.photos.append({'url': upload(staged), 'altered': True, 'original_url': original_url,
'disclosure': f'This image has been digitally altered. View the unaltered original at {original_url}'})Control: An advertising image altered with AI or editing software is published without a disclosure on or next to it and access to the unaltered original. The same guard addresses 1 item with binding law in 1 jurisdiction. Engineering guidance, not legal advice.
Rule id ca-ab723.altered-listing-image-disclosure-and-original · review status: primary source derived