Slashdot Mirror
Apple Uses Machine Learning To Chronicle All the Bra Pics On Your iPhone (vice.com)
New submitter bumblebaetuna shares a report from Motherboard: It's already well known that iOS 11 included some advanced updates to the phone's artificial intelligence, and this includes improving the photo app's ability to identify and categorize what is in each of your photos. There are thousands of objects the phone can identify, ranging from "abacus" to "zucchini." Weirdly, despite not having categories for, say, "nude," or "underwear," there are multiple categories for bra: brassiere, bandeau, bandeaus, bra, bras, and brassieres. Searching for this folder in your photos app may reveal an unexpected surprise. Though there are some pretty archaic terms like "homburg," "habiliment," and "danseuse," the "bra" category is unusual compared to the other quotidian labels the app slaps on your photos, and is as risque as the terms get.
Google does not do this. Google does not use end-to-end encryption in storing your data. This allows them to analyze your photos in the cloud. In return for opening your entire photo world up to them (and anyone who can pry it out of them legally or illegally), they do give you some nice features. I enjoy the assistant-generated collages, animations, and movies.
Apple, on the other hand, stores photos using end-to-end encryption. Their cloud servers cannot analyze them. They are performing this analysis on the device. And the results of the analysis are kept under the same security as the photos.
Google may start doing photo analysis on the Pixel 2 with its new AI chip soon, but they are not now. When they do, it is still unlikely that they will give up on being able to access your photos while they are on their server.