// PC GAMER — GAMING
Unscrupulous Airbnb host tries to get $1,700 out of Redditor with AI-generated pic of overflowing toilet
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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.
"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.
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Jacob got his hands on a gaming PC for the first time when he was about 12 years old. He swiftly realised the local PC repair store had ripped him off with his build and vowed never to let another soul build his rig again. With this vow, Jacob the hardware junkie was born. Since then, Jacob's led a double-life as part-hardware geek, part-philosophy nerd, first working as a Hardware Writer for PCGamesN in 2020, then working towards a PhD in Philosophy for a few years while freelancing on the side for sites such as TechRadar, Pocket-lint, and yours truly, PC Gamer. Eventually, he gave up the ruthless mercenary life to join the world's #1 PC Gaming site full-time. It's definitely not an ego thing, he assures us.
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