Apple is introducing a new technology to identify photos taken from iPhones, how to use it?

 Apple is introducing a new technology to identify photos taken from iPhones, how to use it?

Apple is going to introduce a new technology that can easily identify real photos taken from its iPhone devices. As the number of fake photos created by AI on the Internet is increasing, Apple is developing a system to verify the authenticity of photos taken from its device's camera hardware.

Recently, as generative AI can create fake photos that look real in a matter of seconds, it has become difficult to distinguish which photos are actually taken from the camera and which ones were made by AI. Earlier, Google had introduced a technology to watermark AI photos through 'Synth-ID' and label AI content with Meta.

However, Apple has chosen a different path to discourage fake photos by confirming the authenticity of real photos taken from its own iPhone camera.

According to details found in the beta code of an upcoming iOS update, Apple is working on a feature called 'Apple Reference Image'. This technology will use unique data associated with the iPhone's camera sensor and hardware to verify and confirm whether a photo was actually taken with that iPhone. In addition, Apple is also arranging to tag photos made with its own 'Image Playground' AI with metadata.

Platforms reporting on Apple have mentioned that Apple has given high priority to user privacy in this process of identifying photos from its devices.

When verifying a photo, Apple does not look at the original photo itself. Instead, the photo is sent to a 'private cloud compute' and only certain data and metadata from the camera sensor are checked.

If an iPhone's camera sensor is found to be tampered with or hacked, Apple can even cancel the pre-verification of photos taken with that sensor.

How to use it?

To later identify a photo as being taken with an iPhone, the user has to use a special mode on the camera. Once this feature is released, users will have to go to the camera in the settings and select the ‘Reference Image’ option. This feature will be available only after turning on the ‘Reference Mode’ that appears there. Only after taking a photo in ‘Reference Mode’ instead of the normal mode, the necessary evidence related to the device’s hardware will be included in the photo.

It is not automatically authenticated as soon as the photo is taken. The user can send the photo for authentication at any time they want. The private cloud compute checks the image and the iPhone’s hardware data and confirms that the photo is genuine, and then provides it with a unique ID.

When sending a photo taken from an iPhone to another person, the recipient’s Apple device will be able to check whether the photo was actually taken from an Apple device within the device without informing Apple’s servers.

If the ‘All Photos Data’ option is selected while sharing a photo, the iPhone’s hardware unique ID and uncropped footage can also be sent along with the photo.

Additionally, Apple is introducing a new option called 'Transfer with Provenance' to ensure that the evidence that the photo was taken on an iPhone is not lost when transferring photos to a computer (Mac or PC). With this option turned on and data transferred via USB, the photo's reference image data and hardware identification will be preserved on the computer as well.