You may have seen Apple Maps survey cars in your area before. As they drive around, the cars take photos and 3D scans to generate ground truth data that can be used to improve map accuracy and offer features like Look Around, Apple’s equivalent of Google Street View.
But now the data collected from these cars will also have another purpose. In an updated disclosure on the Apple Maps Image Collection website, Apple says that starting this month, imagery from its vehicle surveys will also be used to train generative AI models, like those used for Apple Intelligence features such as Image Playground and Clean Up.
Apple Maps collects photos through vehicle surveys, using cars equipped with an array of cameras, and pedestrian surveys, where contractors walk around areas wearing special equipment on a backpack. The Image Collection website details where Apple plans to visit over the next few months; it returns to the same locations periodically to refresh its data as needed.
The text at the top of that page has not changed for a long time, until sometime earlier this month when the new paragraph was added about using the data to train AI models.
Here’s the newly added message:
In addition to improving Apple Maps and the algorithms that blur faces and license plates in images published in Look Around feature, Apple also will use blurred imagery collected during surveys conducted beginning in March 2025 to develop and improve other Apple products and services. This includes using data to train models powering Apple products and services, including models related to image recognition, creation, and enhancement.
As always, Apple protects the privacy of individuals while collecting these photos. This includes blurring any visible faces or license plates. The blurred versions are what will be contributed to the AI data sources.
The current set of Apple Intelligence features includes a few different features that rely on image generation models.
Clean Up is available through the Photos app, and allows users to quickly remove distracting background objects from a photo. Image Playground lets you type in a few keywords and generate a new image in an animation, sketch or illustration style. And Image Wand helps improve your documents and notes, by creating an accompanying image based on a rough line sketch using the Apple Pencil.
The Photos app also has vastly improved image recognition capabilities on Apple Intelligence-capable devices, improving the accuracy of keyword search and enabling the ability to create Memory Movies based on a prompt from the user.
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