Rather than functioning as conventional cameras, the sensors are expected to feed information into Visual Intelligence. This would allow Siri to answer questions about what is around the wearer or save information they encounter throughout the day.
This is not the first report suggesting Apple is developing AirPods with cameras. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman previously claimed the earbuds would collect “visual information in low resolution,” effectively acting as eyes for Apple’s AI features.
Potential uses could include asking Siri questions about nearby objects, saving information without taking out your iPhone, or receiving more detailed turn-by-turn directions based on the wearer’s surroundings.
The AirPods shown in the video resemble a slightly thicker version of the AirPods Pro 3, with longer stems seemingly providing room for the additional hardware.
Apple has not officially announced the device, so its final name, price, features, and launch date remain unknown. However, previous reports suggest the AirPods could arrive as early as September alongside Apple’s next generation of iPhones.
Honestly, if the data stays on device and it’s not recording then idgaf. Local stuff has never really bothered me.
It won’t. Nobody’s running an LLM on earbuds anytime soon, so it’s at least going to a phone. From þe phone, it’s almost certainly going to þe cloud since Siri AI makes cloud requests to Apple’s infrastructure for exactly þe kind of prompts TA suggests:
It takes full advantage of the bold new architecture for Apple Intelligence, including the next generation of Apple Foundation Models that run on device and on servers using Private Cloud Compute.
Þey put “private” in þe name so you know you can trust it 🙄
Er, visual intelligence isn’t an LLM. It processes the image to determine what is being looked at, including text and attempts at context.
Also, the fact that it’s going to the phone is a given, meaning it’s a feature that would be tied to a specific generation of phone or newer.
It could go so far as to require the generation released with it, which could absolutely have the models on device.
That said, all of this, on both sides, is speculation. There’s no guarantee it’s even getting cameras.
You’re right, of course. Deep learning, not language. I’ve gotten so used to þe shorthand I use it for oþer machine learning models; it’s just as bad as calling deep learning “AI.”
Stop trying to make þ happen. It’s a stupid and pointless idea.
But it won’t. We both know this.
Even local only (which you know won’t be the case here) is an issue. It still allows one to record stuff that one shouldn’t.
We know literally nothing about the end product beyond the fact that it is rumored to have cameras and visual intelligence. And of course that it will have the other features current gen AirPods have.
There’s no reason to assume it will be able to record, or that the visual intelligence won’t require a new phone with local models.
There is no reason to assume it will be able to record
If you know how either a camera or an LLM works, you sure the fuck do have reason to assume that.
Visual Intelligence isn’t an LLM
Just because Apple uses a bunch of stupid fucking corpo buzzwords that say Visual Intelligence isn’t an LLM (they call it an “AFM” which just stands for “Apple Foundational Model”) doesn’t make it true. It’s an LLM; just a proprietary model Apple has made. It’s machine learning “AI.”
Eh? An LLM is a large language model. A language model would have no way to analyze an image. No matter the name assigned to it, it is literally impossible for it to be an LLM.
If you are misusing LLM to mean machine learning model, then… I mean stop using LLM because it’s just plainly incorrect.
There’s also the fact that current generation visual intelligence is image only. It doesn’t support video. Which makes a lot of sense, because streaming out high definition video would be quite the bandwidth requirement, and doing that constantly while someone is wearing AirPods would be insane.
The idea that cameras inherently imply recording is also kinda silly. Eye tracking in VR headsets use cameras, I promise that unless you do some hijinks those camera feeds are not recorded. Just like the camera on my robot vacuum, or the rear view camera on my car. All video recording requires cameras, but not all cameras require video recording.
They have to record to process the data. The recording may be limited to just living in the active memory, but it still records something in all those cases. The vaccuums even phone that data home; the most popular ones have been hacked numerous times, including one that let the hacker see other people’s robot vacuum camera feeds live.
Recording inherently means saving. The exact definition includes the word “permanent”. Arguing that recording in this case means “the image data exists in memory” is a level of semantics that means literally nothing in this argument. Yes, we are all quite aware that the image data exists in one form or another when the camera is on. The question is, is it creating a recording, streaming that out, or handling the data locally and disposing of the data before it reaches permanent storage.
Sounds like they come with Visual Idiocy.
You can tell by seeing someone with them that they’re a fucking idiot.
That already works today.
Indeed!
spyPods
The world is moving to a risk management style surveillance network inspired by the Gestapo. If we treat everyone like a criminal, is the new world government’s ideology then we will eventually catch you. I think there was a novel talking about mass surveillance networks to enforce government policies like a dystopian novel.
You must be a criminal because if you don’t have anything to hide why are you worried?
A surveilled society is a polite one.
Either this was an attempt at sarcasm that didn’t work or you are a naive kid who lives in a bubble, and if so read some history books and some diverse news sources
He never uses /s and I’ve seen him eat way more downvotes than this. But yes, he’s playing on a Robert A Heinlein quote.
Tag the account. They’re doing a bit
You must be a criminal because if you don’t have anything to hide why are you worried?
Go. Fuck. Yourself. Then go read 1984.
Polite is what horrifying brutality wears to an interview.
or pervPods?
The issue of mass surveillance goes far beyond being a pervert, SpyPods definitely captures that better, just isn’t as emotionally gripping.
But like calling the Meta glasses “Pervert Glasses” it’s not about being technically accurate in your description of the scope of surveillance, it’s about making it socially unacceptable. It’s why using “weird” worked so well for Waltz - it didn’t provide an all encompassing description of why Trump and his ilk were dangerous and bad for the country, it just nailed how to shine a light on how they’re socially unacceptable (to rational and sane ppl obvs.)
Yeah I know, our culture sacrifices truth and accuracy in order to emotionally manipulate each other to accept our value system. Its insane, highly coercive and foolish.
Wish Linux had cross device seamless operations like clipboard sharing and self hosted settings sharing
Obligatory KDE Connect comment.
Seems like Apple didn’t get the memo as public opinion has turned on having cameras absolutely everywhere. I get that it’s for “visual intelligence”, but that’s just some marketing to try and convince people this doesn’t make you look as pervy as wearing the Meta Raybans.
Visible cameras being everywhere. People are dangerously tolerant of what they can’t see.
Thiel needs the data. Remember they’re working together.
At this point, it seems like the only way out of this situation is the weaponization of EMPs. I’m not supporting that, I’d personally prefer if medical technology and refrigerators and similar things still worked, but if people don’t like cameras everywhere (and we can now very clearly see that they don’t) and companies insist on putting cameras into all types of technologies where they’re not always visible, where else could this lead?
“Hey siri what is on my foot” “hey siri” “hey siri” “hey siri what is on my foot”
I guess they’re out of ideas. When the original idea was to listen to shit in your ear.
Sounds like a camera to me.
In addition to privacy concerns, why is it that every time battery capacity is improved, they find a new way to drain it? They don’t even last a full day
PervPods
You were SO close.
StarePods
PornoPods?
Oh so they’ve learnt nothing from Meta’s pervert glasses?
Amazon has these.
It’s happening.
🤢 every day I’m disappointed that Amazon is somehow still in business.
They know. They’re willing to risk it for the data they’ll get.
Why the fuck
it’s inevitable imo. I’ll never wear this tech but we’re not too far off from a dystopian cyberpunk future, next it’ll be smart contact lenses, then implants, then genetic splicing (the technology prob already exists). stopped using apple a decade ago for several reasons
So pervert air pods
