San Diego leaders propose law to stop use of AI technology for rent rigging

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — City of San Diego leaders and housing advocates are fighting back against AI technology that allegedly targets renters.
On Wednesday morning, City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera and a coalition of housing advocates went before the council’s Rules Committee to take the first step in preventing this technology from being used by San Diego landlords.
The proposal they presented calls for a ban that prevents landlords from using AI technology to set rent prices and maximize the landlord’s profits.
Elo-Rivera said the technology uses algorithms to analyze rent prices across the city and determine the highest possible price to charge tenants.
“What this technology is doing is stripping the humanity out of the interaction between landlord and their tenant,” Elo-Rivera said. “They’re turning this into a purely mathematical, technological process that is devoid of compassion, understanding, and folk’s needs.”
Elo-Rivera was joined by numerous housing advocates speaking on behalf of San Diegans who are being priced out of the city the quickest.
The advocates said people from college students to labor union workers are falling victim to these algorithms that allegedly use artificial inflation to manipulate rent prices, forcing tenants to leave because of high prices.
Seniors were also said to be hit the hardest and are the fastest-growing population of homelessness because they live on fixed incomes with no protections against rent increases.
Barbara Pinto is one tenant who has been put in an impossible situation.
Pinto is a long-time Logan Heights resident and an active member of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) Action, which she said is focused on finding rent control for seniors.
“Here I was, retired, thinking I was going to travel, I was comfortable, and it’s all going to rent now,” Pinto said. “Eventually, I just had to get a part-time job.”
Several states are monitoring this alleged price-fixing scheme, including California, which has joined the U.S. Attorney General in fighting this AI technology.
The U.S. Attorney General has already sued a real estate company in North Carolina for using this complicated AI technology and San Francisco was the first U.S. city to ban its use by landlords.
In the rules committee meeting, ABC 10News learned that northeast San Diego is a submarket where landlords are using this AI technology.
The proposal passed with a 4-1 vote Wednesday morning.
The City Attorney’s Office will help write the law and send it back to the City Council for revisions and a vote.