Reference Image could be a new way to prove provenance in the wake of generative AI.
We’re looking forward to seeing the new artificial intelligence side of Siri when iOS 27 launches, but it appears that Apple may have additional tools in the works. In its analysis of the latest operating system beta, 9to5Mac noticed some signals that Apple might be working on a photo authentication feature. Apple Reference Image appears to be a tool that will verify that a photo was taken with an iPhone camera. To confirm that a photo is an iPhone capture, select sensor information and metadata for an image can be sent to Private Cloud Compute for verification. A new Reference mode will need to be enabled on an iPhone’s camera in order for this authentication option to be available.
Resources for checking an image’s source in this age of AI slop is more critical than ever. Thus far, most of the tools involve putting a digital watermark onto generative AI creations, such as those in Apple’s Image Playground and its other forthcoming image editing capabilities. Google also continues to expand its SynthID AI watermarking program. This approach of Reference Image to create confirmation of content’s provenance could be a useful counterpart to those metadata watermarking efforts. Since all this is happening in an ongoing beta test, however, it’s possible that Reference Image won’t be included when iOS 27 does have its public rollout this fall.