The Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 have landed, along with a revolutionary folding iPhone at this year’s Apple event, but despite major advancements under the hood, the feature that is standing out to me is a software-based one.
Siri Recaps is a new Audio Intelligence feature that turns your Apple Watch into an always-listening device. The idea is that Siri Recaps, which lives on the Siri app, uses the Apple Watch’s sensors to provide a summary of your day, including conversations that have taken place. It can be toggled with a schedule, or at the top of the Smart Stack.
It’s a little like the Amazon Bee, which is a microphone attached to a smart band, which is used to capture and summarize conversations. While I can see this feature as being useful for people who attend lots of meetings (having a virtual assistant taking minutes in the background all day long could be very useful), there are understandably privacy concerns here.
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We’re told the Recaps feature doesn’t record or store audio and it can’t show a transcript. Instead, it processes events live as they take place, using Siri AI to turn that raw data into actionable notes, never written into permanent storage. Below is a screenshot from Apple’s presentation:
Your watch, like a smartphone or smart speaker, already has to always listen for a wake word (like ‘Siri’ or ‘Alexa’), but the audio it’s listening to is not logged or recorded: only interactions starting with the wake word are.
But add an always-listening AI assistant into the mix who’s taking notes on your day-to-day, including your conversations with others who may not know they’re being surveilled, and suddenly Apple’s latest handy feature starts to look a lot creepier. Apple’s other big new Audio Intelligence feature for watches is Live Rewind, which can produce a transcript of the last 15 seconds of audio on your watch face — whether a wake word was said, or not.
I’m frankly surprised Apple even went through with this feature at this time, considering the bans and backlash other AI-powered surveillance wearables are getting.
I’m thinking, of course, about Meta, and its smart glasses being banned in some public spaces and generally disparaged with names like ‘pervert glasses’. Smart glasses have obviously garnered a real stigma thanks to people drilling out the LED recording light and using them to discreetly record inappropriately and without consent for clout, content, or their own personal use.
This has created a general feeling of malaise around wearables equipped with discreet cameras and microphones in general. Like Meta Glasses, the Live Rewind and Siri Recaps features have accessibility potential for those hard of hearing, but they’re going to make most people uncomfortable.
Watch: Audio Intelligence features being announced
Apple is keen to evidence its trustworthiness, with on-device AI and Private Cloud Compute and an insistence that it doesn’t record or log audio and transcripts. However, if people think they’re being discreetly recorded without their permission, it’s possible Apple Watch wearers could experience their own slice of the abuse hurled at Meta Glasses wearers.
I wrote earlier this year that wearable tech has to separate itself from surveillance capitalism if it wishes to be cool again. It seems Apple has taken a step in the other direction.
Update: Apple has published an article on its website, specifically about Audio Intelligence, and much has been made about how Audio Intelligence protects user privacy and is used responsibly. You can read the full article here.
In short, Apple says audio is not recorded or stored because “there is no recording to share, forward, or produce if requested by any party, because no recording exists”. Instead, audio data is processed by Siri live, and raw audio “is never accessible”.
Your data is not accessible to Apple either, thanks to Private Cloud Compute, and “independent security experts can verify this promise at any time”. Siri Recaps auto-delete after seven days too. Apple is serious about getting users to trust this feature.
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