This barndominium does not exist, part II
You can pay $79.99 for additional AI-generated images of it, though
Back in March 2024, I wrote about Barndominium Gallery, a hijacked Facebook page with over two hundred thousand followers that has been churning out AI-generated images of barndominiums since late January of this year. In the time since, the situation has evolved somewhat, and the operators of the account have unveiled a potential monetization strategy in the form of a brand new website, aycustomhome.com. Many of Barndominium Gallery’s recent Facebook posts link to this website and offer alleged “plans and cost of build” for the AI-generated homes posted by the account. As is often the case, there is both more and less going on here than meets the eye.
The aycustomhome.com website, which features a gallery of AI-generated images of houses and was registered in March 2024, purports to be the official website of a South Carolina business named “AY Custom Home”. Despite AY Custom Home’s claims to have over 22000 satisfied customers, 2700 projects completed, and 1200 customer reviews, the Internet is surprisingly devoid of coverage of this supposed business outside of AY Custom Home’s own website. Interestingly, the business’s website contains no address more specific than “South Carolina”, and a search of South Carolina business filings does not list anything for “AY Custom Home” at the time of this writing. An email requesting more information on homes actually constructed and more information on the company was not returned.
All of the AI-generated barndominiums on aycustomhome.com are accompanied by the price $79.99. If this strikes you as an unusually low cost for a home, that’s because the site doesn’t actually sell homes; the $79.99 is for a floor plan layout, eight additional images of a nonexistent house (presumably AI-generated), and a cost-to-build estimate. Before you pull out your credit card or your PayPal account, however, it’s worth knowing that the operators of the associated Barndominium Gallery Facebook account have shared alleged floor plans for their artificially-generated houses before, and these plans have generally not matched the depicted house. For example, the “plans” accompanying an AI-generated barndominium in a June 22nd post have a hallway where the image shows a fireplace, and also omit the entire second story/attic.
Things get even dicier when it comes to AY Custom Home’s staff. The website lists three employees, accompanied by photos: Izzy O., an Exterior Design Expert, Brigette T., an Archi Expert, and Daniella T., also an Archi Expert. Unfortunately, the photographs of all three purported employees are in fact stock images that have been repeatedly used for a variety of purposes all over the internet.
What about the 1200+ customer reviews that AY Custom Home has allegedly received? As mentioned earlier, attempting to find these reviews via search engines proved largely fruitless. In fact, the only reviews available as of July 4th, 2024, are a set of “Client Testimonials” on the aycustomhome.com website, attributed to alleged clients Taylor Cadagin, Pam Elsey, and Tim Strode. Wayback Machine archives of the site reveal an additional problem, however — although the text of the client testimonials has remained the same, the names of the supposed clients have been changed periodically. An April 10th, 2024 archive of the site has the name “Emma L.” on the review currently attributed to “Tim Strode”; similarly, the current “Pam Elsey” review was previously signed “Mark T.”, and the “Taylor Cadigan” review previously bore the name “David R.”
Sheesh...
Frauds. Hello FBI..