In a world alarmed by AI failures, Apple wants you to trust what’s captured on your iPhone.
The company announced on Wednesday during its Surprise and Shine event that it is introducing Apple Reference Image, a feature it says can prove whether photos taken with the iPhone 18 Pro are genuine.
“This is important for photographers and videographers,” the company said.
When a photo is taken, the main camera sensor also records the signed sensor data, which Apple’s Cloud Compute service then converts into an “immutable image” viewable in the Photos app. The reference image can then be compared to other versions of the image to determine if there have been any changes. Apple compares reference images to “digital negatives”.
While reference photos will initially only be viewable in the Photos app, the company is making APIs available to developers so they can integrate the feature into their own apps.
Apple also said it will support the SynthID standard to help people identify whether images were created or altered with AI.
Apple Reference Image is one of several new features and hardware and software upgrades the company focuses on the camera.
The company says the iPhone 18 Pro includes the biggest camera upgrade in years. One upgrade that’s sure to get the attention of photographers is the variable aperture on the new 48-megapixel Fusion primary camera. Aperture is what controls how much light enters the lens. This new main camera has a variable aperture, which means the user can control the amount of light that comes in and ultimately what the final image will look like. It should be especially useful for people who like to take pictures at night.
To achieve this, Apple said it has developed a system of six laser cutting blades, each one thinner than a human hair and made of special polymer components, a new rotor mechanism to control movement, and a custom-designed lens.
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