Apple offers $1 million bounty to anyone who can hack its new AI system

Apple is willing to bet big on the security of Apple Intelligence, so much so that the tech giant has offered a bounty of up to $1 million to anyone who can hack it.

The company announced Thursday that it is inviting “all security researchers – or anyone with interest and technical curiosity” to conduct “their own independent verification of our claims.”

The public is challenged to test the security of ‘Private Cloud Compute’, the servers that receive and process user requests for Apple Intelligence when the AI ​​task is too complex for on-device processing.

According to Apple, the system features end-to-end encryption and immediately deletes a user’s request once the task is completed.

There are different payouts for certain discoveries, but the $1 million goes to anyone who can run code on the system without being detected and gain access to sensitive components.

Apple Intelligence is a built-in artificial intelligence system coming to the iPhone 16, 15 Pro, and 15 Pro Max sometime next week.

The AI-powered product was unveiled in September, unveiling new features for sorting messages, generative writing and creating unique emojis.

But only those with the high-end iPhone 15 smartphones and the new iPhone 16 will have access to the highly anticipated platform.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said it marks “a new chapter in Apple innovation.”

What this means for you as a customer is that from now on you will find more AI integrated into your apps and devices.

Apple Intelligence focuses largely on so-called “generative” AI models, which allow users to create text or images based on prompts.

And Apple wants to make sure the system is secure.

“To further encourage your exploration of Private Cloud Compute, we are expanding Apple Security Bounty with rewards for vulnerabilities that demonstrate a compromise of PCC’s fundamental security and privacy guarantees,” the company shared in the announcement.

Apple previously only allowed external auditors into its Private Cloud Compute, but now anyone can give it a try.

Those up to the challenge will also have access to a security guide and a virtual environment, allowing people to analyze Private Cloud Compute in the developer preview of macOS Sequoia 15.1.

That means participating individuals will need a Mac with an M-series chip and at least 16 GB of RAM to gain access.

Apple will pay $100,000 to anyone who can execute “unconfirmed” code – or code requests that haven’t been verified by the company.

Anyone who can gain access to a user’s request data or other sensitive information about the user outside the “trust boundary” – a boundary where program data or execution changes the “trust level” – can win up to $250,000.

And if someone can “access a user’s request data or other sensitive information about the user outside the trust boundary,” they will receive $150,000.

A small reward of $50,000 is provided if someone can hack the system to accidentally or unexpectedly release data.

“We believe Private Cloud Compute is the most advanced security architecture ever deployed for cloud AI computing at scale, and we look forward to working with the research community to build trust in the system and evolve it over time. of time even safer and more private,” says Appel.

Most iOS users will have to wait until next week for Apple Intelligence.

But once it launches, there will be a waiting list due to the potentially high demand.

The launch version of Apple Intelligence comes with writing tools for proofreading and rewriting, smart replies that respond quickly to messages, notification summaries, cleaning in photos, an initial redesign of Siri, and more.

But certain features – including Genmoji, Image Playground, ChatGPT integration, and Visual Intelligence – will arrive as part of iOS 18.2, which should hit beta in the next month or so.

Others will come even later. For example, the completely revamped Siri won’t be available until sometime in 2025.

Additionally, next week’s release will only be compatible with US English, meaning countries outside the US will have to wait until December before they can use Apple Intelligence in their languages.