The apple of my AI.
Fruit enthusiasts are allegedly flocking to Saskatchewan, Canada in search of purple apples after they were pictured in viral social media snaps.
But there’s just one problem: The images are artificially generated.
“It looks amazing. It would be so fun. But, unfortunately, it is not real,” Rachelle Hofmeister, a horticulturist at Dutch Growers in Regina, Saskatchewan said of the snaps in an interview with CTV News.
The original photo post, uploaded to Instagram by user Unnaturalist AI, shows several purple apples glistening on a cutting board with one bisected to reveal its violet interior.
The account geotagged Knott’s Berry Farm — a theme park in California.
However, the Unnatirualist AI post described the purple apples as “originating” from the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, where they thrive in the chilly climate and taste like “cinnamon and banana.”
The post even claimed they’re a prized ingredient in “purple applesauce” — a delicacy “celebrated by indigenous Saskatchewan peoples.”
“We’ve had lots of apples that have been developed in Saskatchewan, but none of them are purple,” said Hoffmeister. “They all have white flesh and red skin.”
Despite the blatant fakery, the post quickly blew up across X and Facebook as entranced viewers wondered what the purple apples tasted like and where they could procure them.
Some even made pilgrimages to produce purveyors in Saskatchewan itself asking about the brilliantly-colored orbs, CTV reported.
In fact, Regina’s garden center reportedly gets inquiries every time AI-generated plant pics go viral, per Hofmeister.
She added that said customers generally “feel a little bit silly that they thought it was real.”
While digitally engineering fruit online may seem frivolous, it does illustrate how quickly misinformation can proliferate when aided by artificial intelligence.
Despite proliferating virtually, these fabrications can have serious ramifications in the real world.
In May 2023, an AI-generated photo of a fake explosion at the Pentagon spread on social media – prompting mass confusion among users and a brief selloff in the U.S. stock market.
