Purple apples are going viral on social media, gardens are being flooded with requests – but there’s a catch

The apple of my AI.

Fruit enthusiasts are reportedly flocking to Saskatchewan, Canada in search of purple apples after they were photographed in viral social media photos.

But there’s just one problem: The images are artificially created.

“It looks amazing. It would be so much fun. But unfortunately, it’s not true,” Rachelle Hofmeister, a horticulturist at Dutch Growers in Regina, Saskatchewan, said of the photos in an interview with CTV News.

The original photo post, uploaded to Instagram by user Unnaturalist AI, shows several glowing purple apples on a cutting board with one split to reveal its purple interior.

The account geotagged Knott’s Berry Farm – a theme park in California.

However, the Unnatirualist AI post described purple apples as “native” to the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, where they thrive in the cold climate and taste like “cinnamon and banana.”

The post even claimed they are a prized ingredient in “purple applesauce” — a delicacy “celebrated by Saskatchewan’s indigenous peoples.”

“We’ve had a lot of apples that have developed in Saskatchewan, but none of them are purple,” Hoffmeister said. “They all have white flesh and red skin.”

Despite the blatant fakeness, the post quickly went viral on X and Facebook as amazed viewers wondered what the purple apples tasted like and where they could buy them.

Some even made pilgrimages to produce suppliers themselves in Saskatchewan inquiring about the brilliantly colored orb, CTV reported.

In fact, Regina’s garden center reportedly receives inquiries whenever photos of AI-generated plants go viral, according to Hofmeister.

She added that customers generally “feel a bit silly for thinking it was real”.

While digital online fruit production may seem trivial, it illustrates how quickly misinformation can spread when aided by artificial intelligence.

Despite being spread virtually, these fictions can have serious consequences in the real world.

In May 2023, an AI-generated photo of a fake explosion at the Pentagon went viral on social media – causing mass confusion among users and a short sell-off in the US stock market.