Shopping on Etsy shouldn’t require figuring out whether the product in the photo actually exists. Now, the marketplace is introducing new rules to help take some of that guesswork out of buying.

Etsy announced new restrictions on Oct. 22 in a news post titled "Creativity and Trust in the Age of AI," in which the marketplace banned AI-generated patterns, recipes, and other instructions that buyers follow to create a finished product. Sellers must also show a real example made using those instructions. An AI-generated image of what your project could theoretically look like won’t cut it.

"AI should support our sellers' creativity and craftsmanship, not replace them," James Ossman, Etsy’s vice president of customer operations, wrote in the announcement.

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For most listings , sellers will need to include at least one completely unedited photo showing the actual product against a real background.…