A team of researchers at Purdue University has created a privacy‑focused technique that lets users edit photos with AI while keeping sensitive facial data on the device. The method masks designated regions, such as faces, before the image is sent to an AI service, uploads only the non‑masked portion, and then seamlessly reintegrates the original masked area after editing. The approach works with existing commercial generative AI models, requires no model retraining, and has been validated by testing AI classifiers on masked versus unmasked images, showing a dramatic drop in attribute‑recognition accuracy. The researchers have published their findings in IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence and filed a patent, positioning the technology for future commercial adoption. Read more →