Enhanced Visual Search in Photos allows you to search for photos using landmarks or points of interest. Your device privately matches places in your photos to a global index Apple maintains on our servers. We apply homomorphic encryption and differential privacy, and use an OHTTP relay that hides [your] IP address. This prevents Apple from learning about the information in your photos. You can turn off Enhanced Visual Search at any time on your iOS or iPadOS device by going to Settings > Apps > Photos. On Mac, open Photos and go to Settings > General.

Apple did explain the technology in a technical paper published on October 24, 2024, around the time that Enhanced Visual Search is believed to have debuted. A local machine-learning model analyzes photos to look for a “region of interest” that may depict a landmark. If the AI model finds a likely match, it calculates a vector embedding – an array of numbers – representing that portion of the image.

So it’s local. And encrypted. How is this really news? Am I missing something?

AI generated AITA content.

Coops are co-owned by their members. Usually they have an unpaid elected or voluntary board that makes decisions. The decisions are on budget, allocation of work for the members and who to interview if there’s vacancies.

The budget goes towards services, repairs, maintenance, etc

The individual members of the coop have weekly chores that they need to perform. These chores can take 2-8hrs per week depending on season and the abilities and capabilities of the individual. Often it’s things like minor handyman work, yard work, painting, pulling out the garbage bins, etc

Coops like to get new members that have a profession. Plumbers, carpenters, electricians, accountants, handymen and other such professions are always in high demand. Chores related to these have their material costs covered by the board’s budget. If there’s overrun on the allocated time, it’s usually compensated or outside professional services are hired instead.

Coop fees are usually much lower than renting. In Montréal for example rent is anywhere from ~$1300 to $2500 Canadian for a 1-2BR, depending on how close one lives to transit or downtown/popular areas. Coops usually pay around C$500-$800 in fees for the same place. All of that money goes towards the budget of the coop, none of which is used to enrich the board or any single individual.