Apple ML Research: Private On-Device Machine Learning to Recognize People in Photos

People use Photos (on iOS, iPad OS, and macOS) to browse, search, and relive life's memories with their friends and family. Photos curate and organize photographs, live images, and videos using several machine learning algorithms that operate secretly on the device. A vital component of this goal is an algorithm that recognizes people based on their appearance. In a variety of ways, photos rely on personal information. A user can scroll upon an image, tap on the circle representing the person who has been recognized in that image, and later pivot to browse their library for photographs including that person, as shown in Figure 1A.