Apple Reference Photo Lets iPhone Photographers Prove What’s Real
The new iPhone 18 Pro gets a photo-authentication feature to show that a photo hasn’t been altered with AI.
At Apple's "Surprise and shine" fall event, the company unveiled new AI capabilities for Apple Intelligence and the iPhone 18 Pro featuring Photographic Styles. Amidst these announcements, Apple also revealed a safeguard against AI-generated and altered images with the introduction of a new Reference camera mode. This mode digitally authenticates photos taken with the iPhone 18 Pro, ensuring the image was not tampered with using AI.
The Reference camera mode works by generating an unalterable reference photo, captured by the phone's sensor. This reference photo is then sent along with sensor signatures and other identifiers to Apple's Private Cloud Compute for authentication. The reference photos are saved in the Photos app, adjacent to the primary image that can be edited. By displaying the original and edited versions side by side, users can compare the two images to verify their authenticity.
In addition to the Reference camera mode, Apple announced support for Google's SynthID standard, further enhancing the ability to authenticate images. These tools provide photographers, journalists, and even fishermen with a means to verify their work and confirm that the fish they caught truly resembled the size it appeared in the photograph.
Written by urgent.news from CNET's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
