Apple reportedly building iPhone feature to prove photos aren't AI fakes

Code in the iOS 27 beta references an "Apple Reference Image" system that would embed provenance metadata into photos at the moment of capture, letting users later prove where an image came from. The feature is not live yet, would reportedly ship off by default, and could be enabled via a new Camera settings menu.

Why it matters: As AI image and video generation gets harder to spot visually, camera-level provenance is emerging as a preferred defense over after-the-fact detection tools, alongside efforts like the C2PA content-credentials standard. If Apple ships this at iPhone's scale, it could become a de facto standard for photo authenticity much like EXIF data did for camera metadata.