Apple to Use Maps Look Around Imagery for AI Model Training

Apple says it'll use Apple Maps Look Around photos to train AI

Andrew Liszewski is a senior reporter who's been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2011, but has loved all things electronic since he was a kid. Sometime earlier this month, Apple updated a section of its website that discloses how it collects and uses imagery for Apple Maps' Look Around feature, which is similar to Google Maps' Street View, as spotted by 9to5Mac. A newly added paragraph reveals that, beginning in March 2025, Apple will be using imagery and data collected during Look Around surveys to "train models powering Apple products and services, including models related to image recognition, creation, and enhancement." Apple collects images and 3D data to enhance and improve Apple Maps using vehicles and backpacks (for pedestrian-only areas) equipped with cameras, sensors, and other equipment including iPhones and iPads. The company says that as part of its commitment to privacy, any images it captures that are published in the Look Around feature have faces and license plates blurred. Apple also says it will only use imagery with those details blurred out for training models. It does accept requests for those wanting their houses to also be blurred, but by default they are not. The Verge has reached out to Apple for confirmation on exactly what models will be trained using the imagery, and will update this story accordingly. Apple Intelligence has several features powered by AI image generation models. These include Image Playground, the Clean Up tool in Apple's Photos app which can remove parts of an image, and advanced image recognition that improves the Photos app's search capabilities.

Apple will use its street view Maps photos to train AI models

Apple plans to start using images it collects for Maps to train its AI models. In a disclosure spotted by 9to5Mac, the company said starting this month it would use images it captures to provide its Look Around feature for the additional purpose of training some of its generative AI models. Look Around is Apple's answer to Google Street View. The company originally released the feature alongside its 2019 revamp of Apple Maps. The tool allows users to see locations from ground level. Apple blurs faces and license plates photographed in Look Around images to protect the privacy of any individuals caught in its survey efforts. "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," the company writes in the disclosure. "This includes using data to train models powering Apple products and services, including models related to image recognition, creation, and enhancement." Apple did not immediately respond to Engadget's request for more information. The company's Apple Maps image collection policy page provides a list of regions and dates when it plans to collect new images for Look Around. People can find when Apple's survey crews and vehicles plan to visit their area by sorting by country and then clicking on a specific region. Apple currently offers a few different features that rely on image generation models. Image Playground, for instance, allows owners of Apple Intelligence-compatible devices to write a prompt to create a new image. There's also Clean Up in Photos, which you can use to remove objects from your favorite snapshots. Google has been using Street View images to train AI models for years. In 2017, for example, a pair of researchers from the company trained a machine learning model to generate professional-looking photographs from a dataset collected from Street View.

Apple Maps Look Around cars will now also take photos to help train Apple Intelligence models - 9to5Mac

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.

Apple Maps data will be used to train AI models -- here's what we know

It's been a tough rollout for Apple Intelligence. While Apple has traditionally arrived fashionably late to various tech advancements (and done so in its own style), its artificial Intelligence suite simply hasn't taken off. Leaning heavily on ChatGPT to cover its own shortcomings, it feels as though the company is miles behind the competition -- but it has a plan. The company has quietly announced it will now look to another of its services for help: Apple Maps. The service, despite a rocky start, has grown into a more than respectable rival to Google Maps, and 9to5Mac is reporting that it's about to play a key part in training Apple's own AI models. Apple Maps added a "Look Around" feature, akin to Google's Street View, with a big update in 2019. And, as spotted by 9to5Mac, it appears those adorable Apple Maps cars that can sometimes be seen cruising the streets will have an important part to play in training models. Here's the newly added section on the Apple Maps Image Collection site: "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." While it isn't immediately clear how this will be used to train Apple's AI models, the focus is on their commitment to privacy. Any image that is used to train AI images from Apple Maps will be blurred. They have also stated that they do accept requests for houses to be blurred, but this is not automatically done by default. There's a fun sense of irony that Apple Maps, which still has some negative connotations despite being great nowadays, could help Apple's latest troubled launch find its feel.

Look Around in Apple Maps imagery will be used to train Apple Intelligence

Apple has hundreds of terabytes of data for its Apple Maps Look Around feature, and the company is using that data to train generative AI models. Look Around is a function of Apple Maps that gives users a road-level viewpoint of an area, similar to Google Street View. However, the data collection effort fueling the feature will also be used for AI purposes. In an updated declaration about Apple Maps Image Collection spotted by 9to5Mac, Apple confirms it will be using any data collected in the process to improve its AI models. "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," reads part of the declaration. "This includes using data to train models powering Apple products and services, including models related to image recognition, creation, and enhancement." Taking the description at face value, this would mean features like Visual Intelligence, Photo's Clean Up feature, and Image Playground as part of Apple Intelligence, among others. It could also be employed to train other models for yet-to-launch models that Apple is still working on. While normal mapping data is useful in general, the information gathered for Look Around offers a lot more elements for AI model training and for other areas. The data is collected via a specially prepared backpack worn by a pedestrian Apple employee or contractor, or on a rig attached to a dedicated vehicle. Depending on the rig, this can include capturing not only images of an area, but also 3D depth mapping data. Evidently, for privacy reasons, Apple will be using the final imagery used by Look Around for its training, since it will have blurred people's faces and license plates before publication. The move to use the data is to be expected, as training AI models can require lots of information, and the more information, the better. This has led to controversy over the sourcing of data, including paid sources and scraped information. Some companies are taking somewhat unethical steps to get the data, such as Google's argument that copyright laws shouldn't apply to AI training, as well as Adobe's terms debacle. On Apple's side, it is at least trying to be ethical, paying for access to data instead of simply scraping it. Reusing data collected for Apple Maps certainly makes sense for Apple to do, since it collected the data for itself and doesn't have to ask permission to use it in other ways.