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The Verge
4 days ago
- The Verge
AI is ruining houseplant communities online
'Maybe you could organize your plants like this,' my friend's text message said, with an attached photo of white pots of plants floating midair in front of a huge, sunny window. As a newbie plant collector, I do need to organize my growing collection of flora, but not like this — the photo was AI-generated and the plants depicted were not real. Even as a beginner, I was able to identify issues with the photo. Obviously, my plants cannot physically defy gravity, but most egregiously, the organizational method of putting plants in direct sunlight would completely incinerate their leaves. This was the first time I came across AI-generated plant content from well-meaning people who earnestly believe it is real, but its proliferation is a growing problem in plant-lover communities online and off. While online retailers have often scammed less-knowledgeable consumers, the rise of online stores using AI-generated photos of fake, usually vibrant, and otherworldly-looking plants to fool consumers into buying seeds for plants that do not exist has been remarked upon by multiple plant-specific blogs, podcasts, and communities in the last three years. The offer of pink pastel monstera seeds, a variation of a favorite houseplant that cannot be real because of the species' lack of pink pigment genes, is a common scam online, with even Google's AI assistant confirming its existence. AI-generated photos of bright red and blue hostas also often advertise seeds, but pigment genes that generate these vibrant colors do not exist, and hostas grown from seeds usually inherit unpredictable traits from their two parent plants. Even if these pigment genes existed, there would be no guarantee that you could feasibly create these plants from seeds. 'In the springtime we get customers asking about AI-generated plants multiple times a week,' says Casey Schmidt Ahl, engagement manager at the Colonial Gardens, a garden center in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, who has published a blog post teaching plant owners how to spot fake AI plant scams online. 'We always make sure that we tell them that it is an AI-generated — or at least heavily photoshopped — image, and that they need to be really careful because we know that if we just say we don't have it, they are more likely to just go online and buy it.' According to the post written by Ahl, one customer called in asking about a black bleeding heart plant. Ahl only had bleeding hearts — which have hanging petals that look like hearts dripping in liquid — in white and pink, so she searched for the black version online. The red flags were there: there was only one image of the plant across multiple websites, and there wasn't specific information about the plant's growth or variety. Plant care misinformation regurgitated by AI chatbots and apps is also a common occurrence, according to Ahl. Plant care has always involved folklore and pseudoscience, Ahl explains, like dipping leaf cuttings into honey to help them grow roots or using cinnamon to heal plant wounds. AI is now a part of a larger misinformation ecosystem that includes plant influencers without cited sources repeating plant care myths and plant ID apps. When Ahl writes articles for the Colonial Gardens blog, she uses scholarly papers and growers' guides as sources, but she says it is unclear where an AI-powered bot like ChatGPT is pulling its information from. 'It's always important for us to be able to ground our advice in science,' Ahl says, adding that garden centers have already fallen behind the curve of connecting with clients because of plant influencers on social media who are able to go viral quickly but rarely cite scientific studies. Ahl sees AI-generated misinformation as a part of an ecosystem that discourages plant owners from talking to an expert face-to-face. 'It's disconnecting us further from reality, relationships with nature, and also our community.' Ahl isn't the only one who feels this way. Most plant communities on Reddit ban AI-generated images, and there are strong feelings against AI-generated plant care advice, which some community members say is often wrong and doesn't take the human variable into account. Plant care can vary according to where the plant owner lives, whether the plant owner is a beginner or more experienced collector, and the gardening supplies that are immediately available. But most importantly, AI-generated content — both photos of fake plants and care misinformation — disrupt community engagement, which is what many collectors are seeking when joining these forums. 'Most people are looking to socially connect based on real lived experiences, in a community with others like you, otherwise it would be easier to simply Google a question for answers,' says Redditor known as Caring_Cactus, who moderates four plant-related subreddits, in a written interview. Moderators also struggle with AI automated content that is posted in large volumes by bots. 'They create a lot of generic responses that are full of false information. Most people also view it as lazy and disingenuous with ulterior motives.' This kind of content is 'discouraging any meaningful engagement' because it's not grounded in reality, Caring_Cactus continues. 'They're trying to farm attention with low quality content, and it creates less opportunities for real connection by wasting people's precious time when they want to socialize online.' There are also more existential issues that arise from AI-generated plants, as fake photos and AI-generated care hacks might take away the wonder of how special being a part of the growth and development of real plants can be. 'There's a lot of different reasons that people garden, including supporting wildlife and pollinators with native plants or growing their own food, and these AI images and scams are not really interested in connecting you with a broader goal,' Ahl says. Instead, this content wants to catch your attention through 'a curiosity dopamine sort of response,' Ahl says, or even try to scam you into buying seeds for blue sunflowers. Additionally, the use of AI-powered apps in gardening, where plants and the issues that might be killing them are identified through photos, is like taking a shortcut, which defeats the whole point of the hobby. 'If instead of looking at your plants and making sure that they're watered correctly or reaching out to an expert, you always just take a picture with your AI app and have it tell you what's wrong, you are letting AI do the thinking for you and you're not doing the full connection and the mindfulness of having plants,' Ahl adds. AI-generated plant slop might also make magical-looking real plants look fake, risking the destruction of the wonder collectors feel toward new plant varieties. 'This year they debuted the firefly petunia, which is a glow-in-the-dark petunia,' Ahl says, adding that, admittedly, this sounds like something that shouldn't exist. The proliferation of AI-generated photos has resulted in an existential questioning of reality, and it might be driving us even further away from nature. 'It definitely draws away from the majesty of plants because there are certainly lots of existing varieties that are amazing without having a galaxy pattern on their petals.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Reddit vows to stay human to emerge a winner from artificial intelligence
Reddit is in an 'arms race' to protect its devoted online communities from a surge in artificial intelligence-generated content, with the
The Sun
10-06-2025
- The Sun
My sister took her own life after making sick pact with online chat room stranger who flew over from US to watch her die
A WRITER has described how a man flew from the US to watch her sister take her own life after meeting on a "sick" online forum. Adele Zeynep Walton, 26, told how her sister Aimee was discovered dead by cops in a hotel room in October 2022. 5 5 5 Aimee, who was just 21-years-old at the time, was found with a total stranger, who had flown from the US to watch her die. The sisters - who were raised in Southampton, Hampshire, both had active online lives growing up, but Aimee more so. Adele said that Aimee, who was neurodivergent, was bullied as a teenager and turned to online communities instead. When the pandemic hit, Aimee withdrew even further into the online world, her sister - writing in The Telegraph - explained. She broke up with her boyfriend and spent an increasing amount of time in her room. The first Covid lockdown in England was announced in March 2020, and the third was on January 2021. It was in October 2022 that Adele - who was 25 at the time - and her parents were told that Aimee was dead. Aimee was found in a hotel room in Slough, Berkshire, 60 miles away from her home - with a stranger. They had met through a sick online forum that "partners" up people looking to end their own lives. This forum was also how she got her hands on the substance that killed her - reportedly from Kenneth Law, who has been linked to 88 deaths in the UK. According to The New York Times, the forum was founded by two men who run several "incel" websites. Adele took it upon herself to visit the thread and said many of the posts said: "Your family don't care about you" and "You should do it." She told The Guardian that the man who was with her little sister could have been "living out a sick fantasy as an incel who wants to see a young and vulnerable woman end her life'. The man told police he had been working for the 11 days he spent in the hotel room with Aimee. Adele wrote in The Telegraph: "This forum has taken at least 50 UK lives, including my sister. "From looking at the forum myself, I can see just how easy it is to end up in a rabbit hole of despair, where vulnerable users are told their loved ones don't care about them. "Being informed by police that Aimee died in a hotel room with a stranger who she met on this forum, and who flew from the US to witness her death, still haunts me." Adele now campaigns about the harms of the online world and has written a book called Logging Off: The Human Cost of Our Digital World. If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please call the Samaritans for free on 116123. 5 5
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
18 Unhinged, Crunchy Parents Who Held Nothing Back When Posting Online
I'm sorry, but online parenting groups are out of control, and we need to talk about it. Instead of providing parents with a positive online forum and community, these groups tend to devolve into toxic echo chambers brimming with misinformation, bad advice, and brain rot. Here are 18 screenshots to prove it: mom who wants other mom friends, but only if they're upper-middle class: absolutely shameless weirdo who proves you really can't trust anyone: person who spouted dangerous nonsense online: overstepping grandparent who needs to be kept far away from this baby: grossly judgmental parent who is going to give their child body images issues for life: parent who harshly called their first child bad simply because they developed at a slower rate than their second child: parent who is feverishly obsessed with pushing essential oils on their 16-year-old son: parent who thinks scaring the hell out of their 4-year-old is an acceptable technique: commenter who must suffer from serious brain rot because they think it's suitable to use a child's pain as an opportunity for a parent to grow: parent who really, really wants to get their 10-week-old baby's ears pierced: parent who really doesn't see how leaving their children alone in a car for half an hour is dangerous: poster who wants to skip an important doctor's appointment for their baby, and a commenter who thinks asking ChatGPT is as good as receiving medical care: anti-vax parent who wants to protect their kids from whooping not enough to vaccinate them: stepmother who was upset that their stepchild was sick and "ruined" their Mother's Day: expecting parent who spoke to a doctor and needs medical care, but rather consult randos on Facebook: person who seems more concerned with the aesthetic of their homebirth than making sure it's safe: parent who wants specialized care for their child who keeps getting kicked out of daycare, but refuses to pay fairly for such care: finally, this parent who is drinking all sorts of internet Kool-Aid: H/T: r/ShitMomGroupsSay
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
18 Unhinged, Crunchy Parents Who Held Nothing Back When Posting Online
I'm sorry, but online parenting groups are out of control, and we need to talk about it. Instead of providing parents with a positive online forum and community, these groups tend to devolve into toxic echo chambers brimming with misinformation, bad advice, and brain rot. Here are 18 screenshots to prove it: mom who wants other mom friends, but only if they're upper-middle class: absolutely shameless weirdo who proves you really can't trust anyone: person who spouted dangerous nonsense online: overstepping grandparent who needs to be kept far away from this baby: grossly judgmental parent who is going to give their child body images issues for life: parent who harshly called their first child bad simply because they developed at a slower rate than their second child: parent who is feverishly obsessed with pushing essential oils on their 16-year-old son: parent who thinks scaring the hell out of their 4-year-old is an acceptable technique: commenter who must suffer from serious brain rot because they think it's suitable to use a child's pain as an opportunity for a parent to grow: parent who really, really wants to get their 10-week-old baby's ears pierced: parent who really doesn't see how leaving their children alone in a car for half an hour is dangerous: poster who wants to skip an important doctor's appointment for their baby, and a commenter who thinks asking ChatGPT is as good as receiving medical care: anti-vax parent who wants to protect their kids from whooping not enough to vaccinate them: stepmother who was upset that their stepchild was sick and "ruined" their Mother's Day: expecting parent who spoke to a doctor and needs medical care, but rather consult randos on Facebook: person who seems more concerned with the aesthetic of their homebirth than making sure it's safe: parent who wants specialized care for their child who keeps getting kicked out of daycare, but refuses to pay fairly for such care: finally, this parent who is drinking all sorts of internet Kool-Aid: H/T: r/ShitMomGroupsSay
