🌷 Scammers Are "Selling" AI-Generated Plants
Striking images of exotic plants, seemingly too perfect to be real, are flooding marketplaces and social media. But these botanical wonders weren't bred in greenhouses: they were crafted by scammers using AI models.
The most viral example is a plant called Cat's Eye Dazzle, with petals shaped like kitten faces ⤴️ Seed packets for this so-called variety were sold on eBay for around $44. According to estimates, scammers may have made up to $8,000 on this plant alone.
Customers regularly come into real garden centers asking to buy these "AI plants" in real gardening stores, says John Morgan, head of educational outreach at Bob's Market and Greenhouses in West Virginia. And they're shocked to learn the beautiful images are fake.
"With older customers, it's a little bit harder to explain to them because they're like, 'I'm sitting here looking at a picture of it,'" says Morgan.
The irony is that even real plants are now being doubted. The glowing Firefly petunia, introduced this year, has been dismissed by many as a hoax. The same goes for the Dracula simia orchid—a flower with petals that uncannily resemble a monkey's face.
