September Apple events are always a swirl of information and new, exciting products, and today's was no different. Apple announced its first foldable, the iPhone Duo, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max; active noise cancellation (ANC) is now on the cheapest AirPods model, the AirPods 5; and a Siri Recap feature comes to the Watch Series 12 and Watch Ultra 4. But missing were the AirPods Pro with cameras that have been rumored throughout the year and, according to Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, are delayed until 2027. I'm happy about that and I hope we never get them.
I have too many concerns about a company — any company — putting cameras anywhere, especially in devices like earbuds that are now so ubiquitous in our daily lives. LED lights on glasses or earbuds do little to ease people's minds when someone is recording them. And some Meta smart glasses users have shown people will hide their recording intentions. While recording in public in the US is generally legal, it can be very creepy. And with earbuds as common as they are, someone could wear them into sensitive situations unnoticed.
Rumors say that the cameras on the potential AirPods will be low-resolution and “aren't designed†to take images or video, but instead use what they see to inform Siri AI and Visual Intelligence. That information could be used to help with turn-by-turn directions or identify writing and objects like books. Even with a low-resolution camera, it's still potentially always gathering information about the world (and people!) around you. That invasion of privacy is something I cannot get past.
During today's event, Apple introduced Audio Intelligence with the Apple Watch, which sounds like a precursor to the Visual Intelligence we're expecting on the rumored AirPods Pro 4. In its support documentation, Apple points out that audio is not stored and there's no way to access a recording, which could be the same for video data with Visual Intelligence, and that for its Siri Recap feature, any data used to create a summary is not even accessible by Apple. Any stored data — such as a Siri Recap or a bit of text the user can save with Live Rewind — is also end-to-end encrypted. People are not identified in the Siri Recap, either. Of course, none of this is live yet, so we'll have to wait and see how well Audio Intelligence works once it's released.
Functionally, a camera will only gather information if it can see things. What if you have thick, long hair? Or like to wear hoodie sweatshirts? Or fancy, elaborate jewelry? The AirPods would just turn into what they should be — earbuds. It's possible the reason the AirPods with cameras have been pushed into 2027 is to find solutions to these problems. Or maybe part of the delay is Apple separating itself from the current public climate around cameras thanks to Meta and Flock.
The one immediate benefit of the AirPods with cameras could be accessibility. They could improve situational awareness for people with visual limitations or help hard-of-hearing users read lips. They could even figure out the person you're speaking to and focus the AirPods' mics on them for increased intelligibility.
When you take out privacy concerns or the fact that lots of people — and companies — look for opportunities to exploit people, there's good that can be done. But it involves a lot of trust to be put in untrustworthy hands. I'm not sure I'm ready for that. Or if I ever will be. Whether any of us are ready or not, though, it seems the cameras are coming. The introduction of Apple's Audio Intelligence on the new Apple Watch is evidence enough that the company is going all in on using sensors to analyze the world around us.
