Apple Delays Camera AirPods as Siri Visual AI Falls Short and Battery Life Could Halve
Updated
Updated · WIRED · Jun 5
Apple Delays Camera AirPods as Siri Visual AI Falls Short and Battery Life Could Halve
3 articles · Updated · WIRED · Jun 5
Summary
Apple is likely to postpone camera-equipped AirPods even though the hardware is ready, because Siri’s visual intelligence is not yet good enough and executives fear the privacy backlash from earbuds that can see.
Low-resolution cameras were designed to give Siri visual context for tasks such as landmark navigation, food identification and accessibility support, with a small LED expected to signal when visual data is sent to the cloud.
The project also reflects Apple’s broader AI push: camera feeds could improve on-device context or feed Private Cloud Compute, but any wider model-training use would test Apple’s privacy promises and reliance on partners like Google.
Battery limits remain a practical obstacle. University of Washington researchers found camera-modified AirPods Pro 2 ran for just over 3 hours—roughly half normal life—while analysts say the feature may make more sense as a step toward future smart glasses.