The apple of my A.I.
Fruit lovers are reportedly flocking to Saskatchewan, Canada in search of purple apples after pictures of them went viral on social media.
But there's just one problem: these images are artificially generated.
“It looks amazing. It would be so much fun. But, unfortunately, it's not real,” Rachel Hoffmeister, horticulturist at Dutch Growers in Regina, Saskatchewan In an interview with CTV News he said this about these photos.
Original photo post, uploaded here By Instagram user Unnaturalist AIThe image shows several purple apples shining on a cutting board, one of which is split in two to reveal its purple interior.
The account was geotagged to Knott's Berry Farm – a theme park located in California.
However, the Unnaturalist AI post described the purple apples as “originating” from the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, where they thrive in cool climates and taste like “cinnamon and banana.”
The post even claimed they are a prized ingredient in “purple applesauce” — a dish that “indigenous Saskatchewan people celebrate.”
“We have a lot of apples developed in Saskatchewan, but none of them are purple,” Hofmeister said. “They all have white flesh and red skin.”
Despite this obvious hoax, the post soon went viral. Exploded across the X And it was also broadcast on Facebook, where captivated viewers were busy trying to find out what these purple apples would taste like and where they could get them from.
CTV reports that some people even approached product retailers in Saskatchewan asking about the brightly coloured circular objects.
In fact, according to Hofmeister, Regina's garden centre receives inquiries whenever AI-generated plant photos go viral.
He said customers usually “feel a bit foolish that they thought it was real.”
Although digitally preparing fruits online may seem like a trivial thing, it shows how quickly misinformation can spread with the aid of artificial intelligence.
Despite their increasing prevalence, these fabrications can have serious consequences in the real world.
In May 2023, AI generated photos News of a fake explosion at the Pentagon spread on social media – causing widespread confusion among users and a brief sell-off in the US stock market.
