Apple will pay up to $1 million to anyone who discovers a privacy breach in Apple Intelligence

Apple has done a great job Apple Intelligence privacy credentials when the AI suite launched earlier this year. These claims have attracted some skepticism, especially from people such as Elon Musk who was especially offended by Apple partnership with ChatGPT. But now Apple is putting its money where its mouth is by launching first Apple Intelligence Bug Bounty.

In particular, Apple invites hackers to explore the Private Cloud Compute (PCC) feature. While on-device AI is inherently more private since all data stays on the phone, cloud computing is a different story. PCC is Apple’s attempt to solve this problem and offer cloud-based AI processing without compromising data security and user privacy.

But it’s clear that Apple doesn’t expect us all to take its word for it, and is actively inviting security researchers and “anyone with an interest and technical curiosity” to independently verify the company’s claims about PCC. It would be a huge blow for Apple if this system were somehow compromised and attackers gained access to supposedly secure user data.

The purpose of bug bounties is to incentivize hackers and other security professionals. Hackers are an intrepid bunch of people, and they can often find ways to stress test systems that their own developers never thought of. By reporting any problems they encounter, they enter into a mutually beneficial agreement with Apple. Apple can quietly fix security flaws, preventing user data from being shared with unwanted people, and hackers are paid for their efforts.

In the case of PCC, Apple offers different rewards depending on the issue reported, but the maximum amount has now been increased to $1 million. This amount is only available for “executing arbitrary code with arbitrary privileges” during a “remote attack on request data.” This should tell you how serious Apple is about this or how confident it is in the security of PCC.

Overall, a million dollars is a small price to pay to avoid the PR disaster that would have occurred if the criminals had found a way to get inside.

To make this task easier, Apple offers a variety of tools and resources to help bug hunters in their work. They include safety guide with PCC technical details, source code for “certain key PCC components that help implement security and privacy requirements” and “Virtual research environment” for PCC safety analysis. The latter requires you to have a Mac with Apple Silicon, at least 16GB of RAM, and access to macOS Sequoia Developer Preview 15.1.

Privacy is always an issue when you use online services, and cloud-based artificial intelligence is no exception. Fortunately, Apple appears to still be sticking to its usual privacy-focused mandate and openly looking for ways to ensure security. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it’s better than nothing.