Apple to Train AI Models Using Street View Photos from Maps

Apple plans to use Street View images on Maps to enhance and train its artificial intelligence models.

Apple Embraces AI

With two decades of journalism experience, I bring you significant news today. Apple has revealed plans to use images collected for Maps to train its Artificial Intelligence (AI) models. This development, first spotted by 9to5Mac, signifies a shift in how the Cupertino-based company plans to utilize its data.

Images to Refine AI

Apple’s Look Around, the counterpart to Google Street View, allows users to view locations from street level. The company maintains a strict privacy policy: faces and license plates in Look Around images are blurred. This underscores Apple’s commitment to privacy in its image collection processes.

“In addition to enhancing Apple Maps and the algorithms that blur faces and license plates in published Look Around images, Apple will also use the blurred images collected from surveys starting March 2025 to develop and refine other Apple products and services,” the company stated in its press release.

A Step Towards the Future

This includes using data to train models that power Apple’s products and services, including those related to image recognition, creation, and enhancement. Apple already offers several features based on image generation models. For instance, Image Playground allows Apple Intelligence device owners to input a prompt to create a new image. There’s also Clean Up in Photos, which can be used to remove objects from your favorite pictures.

It’s worth noting that Google has been using Street View images to train its AI models for years. In 2017, for example, two Google researchers developed a machine learning model that could produce professional-looking photographs from a dataset collected from Street View.