updating people... people will finish updating when photos is in the background.
I had this issue like some others here.
There were two posts but no clear answers. What worked for me was a reboot BUT after reboot DON'T
open Photos app (<- this was key). I just opened up Activity monitor and saw that photoanalisysd was taking up all my CPU's (meaning it was scanning). When it finished I then opened up Photos app and no more "updating people".
MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS High Sierra (10.13.3)