Apple appears to be working on a tool that would prove a photo has been captured on an iPhone camera rather than generated via artificial intelligence tools like the company’s Image Playground.
A new Apple Reference Image feature has been spotted in the latest iOS 27 beta. 9to5Mac found that the tool uses the metadata attached to the photo that identifies the image and traces it back to the device that captured it.
The raw photo can be officially authenticated via Apple’s Private Cloud Compute. The image itself doesn’t go to Apple as part of the verification process, just the metadata and the sensor information.
Users will need to enable Reference mode on their iPhone’s camera settings in order to begin authenticating their product. When iOS 27 launches you’ll see it at “Settings > Camera > Reference Image > Enable Reference Mode.”
The report says the feature won’t automatically go about its business, but iPhone owners will be able to manually do so on occasions where verifying a photo is necessary, i.e. when photographers want to prove that the photo is an authentic capture and not more AI slop.
Apple already applies a watermark to images fashioned in its Image Playground app already include a hidden SynthID watermark, so Reference Image will do the same for proper photos.
It’s not clear how the feature will react to further AI amendments made in the editing process but in an ideal world the verification would be removed. It’s also not guaranteed that Apple will roll this tool out in iOS 27 upon its September release, but it may come later in the cycle.
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