Looking at the script below, it looks like it uses a gradient function for loss so that it learns to approach an image that generates a collision. If the case that the hashes themselves, being a result of a neural network, can be reverse engineered into pornographic images then does that raise a legal quandary?

Apple said that the risk of collision is "1 in one trillion" which for a hash function would be terrible. We also don't know what the one trillion images they tested against were. If you upload your regular porn to iCloud, it's likely that pornographic images will raise more false positives than say, pictures of sunsets.

Also relevant question: if these images were not at all generated from illegal porn, but they connect to hashes being used to flag illegal porn, is the purpose of this exercise to generate methods to SWAT people over the internet?

As in, pursue a mechanism to get these onto somebody's computer in a way that they'll be backed up via iCloud (for instance, if a person's got their email account including trash folder backed up in iCloud, and you send them the pictures which they 'throw away' because it means nothing to them, placing the images in a trash folder in the mail preferences)

Is that (a) practical and (b) the intent of this exercise? Seeing as every question I've had here has led to karma burning I figured I'd double down and ask if the person doing this is trying to prepare a weapon for swatting people. There are times I respond to downvoting pressure to 'stop talking!' by getting more interested, which I'm sure is a common reaction among some hackers.