East Hampton is considering using AI and stricter penalties to root out illegal short-term rentals after new data revealed half of the roughly 2,000 listings in the ritzy vacation getaway are unlicensed.

The elite East End town is seeing a surge in illegal bookings that elected officials blame on an influx of new investors — and now they want to use artificial intelligence to flag the black-market bookings and increase fees on owners who list their properties.

“We are looking at commercial investment in our residential districts by investors who only seek to make profit and are not looking at being part of this community at all,” Deputy Supervisor Cate Rogers said at a recent town board meeting. 3

Rogers recommended purchasing AI software to track rentals within the town’s borde

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