This Is Our First Look at Apple's Rumored AirPods With Cameras

For nearly two years , the rumor mill has speculated that Apple is planning to embed cameras into a future pair of AirPods. While that might sound at first like Apple is looking to turn its popular earbuds into a sort of smart glasses-inspired device— with all the privacy caveats that come with it —that doesn't appear to be the case. Instead, should Apple's camera-enabled AirPods be real, its lenses will likely be used by Siri AI to better assist you when your iPhone isn't around. In effect, your AirPods would become a new type of AI device, with the same effect as taking out your iPhone and opening Visual Intelligence , or launching Voice Mode on ChatGPT . Instead of pointing your iPhone's camera at something in the real world and asking Siri AI questions about it, you could instead utilize your AirPods' cameras. It'd make Siri AI a bit more like how smart assistants are depicted in the movie Her —whether you think that's a good or bad thing. AI AirPods with cameras appear to be on their way While we won't know for sure whether or not "seeing AirPods" are in the works until Apple officially announces them, this latest discovery does seem to confirm their existence. While diving through the Release Candidate for macOS 26.7, MacRumors found a video file showing off what appears to be a demonstration of AirPods running Visual Intelligence on their own. In the video, a man holds up the book Could Should Might Don't: How We Think About the Future by Nick Foster.…