Beware of Orchid Photos Generated by Artificial Intelligence

If the photo looks too good to be true...it probably is!

Have you been on social media recently and seen an absolutely amazing orchid photo and thought how could that be real? Most likely, it wasn’t real. In recent years, AI has become very pervasive in our lives. Artificial Intelligence has infiltrated our news, art, literature, and now orchids. If you spend any time on social media at all, we are sure you have seen AI-generated orchid photos, although you may not have realized that’s what they were. Some look obviously fake, but others are a close approximation and are sometimes very hard to pick out as not real, especially if you are not familiar with what the various orchid genera look like.

So far, AI is not perfect, but it’s learning. For example, AOS Director of Awards and Special Projects, Laura Newton, has been following this for several months in our Facebook group and says that AI-generated orchid photos are becoming more commonplace. She recently asked Gemini to show her a picture of a Bulbophyllum. It gave her the photo on the left. Bulbophyllum orchid flowers are very uniquely shaped. The three photos on the right are examples of actual Bulbophyllum flowers. This is a problem because people who see the AI-generated version believe it is an accurate depiction of a Bulbophyllum orchid. The comments and reactions only solidify that fact.

In some cases, it’s not as easy to tell if the photo is real or not. For example, the three supposed Cattleya orchids shown below came from posts on a Facebook page. While they all have the basic shape of a Cattleya orchid, they are most definitely not real orchids. Although real orchids can have a wide diversity of colors, shapes, and patterns, those in the photos below are too brilliant and too patterned. The black color of the bottom orchid is far too saturated and opaque, and the fuchsia color is too fluorescent.

So, how can you tell if the orchid picture you are seeing in a post is real or an AI-generated fake?

* Look at the name of the orchid mentioned in the post. If the name is “Speckled Orchid (Cattleya)” or “The red, white, and pink Cattleya Orchids” or “Cattleya Orchids (Cattleya Hybrid)”, it is probably a fake. Anyone posting a photo of a real orchid should have the correct taxonomic name. If the taxonomic name is not there, ask the person who posted what the real name is.

* Use AI to fight AI. Take a photo of the orchid on your computer screen and ask Google Lens to identify it. This would definitely have helped with the Bulbophyllum fake photo. Even Google Lens, however, may have problems with some of the better fakes.

These fake photos intend to draw attention to the post and the person posting. This is a problem because a lot of bad information is being disseminated. Although the photos may be beautiful, it is better not to react or reply to these types of posts until you are sure that the photo is real. This only encourages more posts with fake AI-generated photos.