Apple’s next-gen AirPods are reportedly in “late stages of development,” with the addition of cameras being a standout feature of the earbuds. The goal of adding cameras is apparently to make the earbuds, potentially called “AirPods Ultra,” into AI-friendly devices that are aware of the user’s surroundings.
They could become the first of a new class of wearables from Apple designed for the AI era.
AirPods Ultra may be Apple’s most ambitious AI product yet
Many companies are working on devices that might someday replace the smartphone — Apple is one of them. One concept is small, wearable AI-enabled devices that can see and hear what’s going on around them and communicate with the user via voice commands.
Apple might be taking a step in that direction with its next earbuds.
“Apple Inc. has reached the late stages of development for new AirPods with built-in cameras, a significant milestone for what will likely be its first wearable device designed for the artificial intelligence era,” Bloomberg reported Thursday.
To understand the point of adding cameras to earbuds, consider Apple’s own visual intelligence feature. This lets users point an iPhone camera at an object in the real world and receive an explanation for it. The AI feature can read and summarize text, identify objects, translate languages and more.
With cameras in AirPods Ultra, the look-up process becomes even simpler.
Cameras not focused on pictures
The idea of almost everyone walking around with cameras on their ears sounds like a privacy nightmare, but that occurred to Apple.
“The cameras essentially act as eyes for the Siri digital assistant and aren’t designed to take photos or video. These components — located in both the right and left earbuds — allow the device to capture visual information in low resolution,” according to Bloomberg.
A visible warning light would indicate that the cameras are on.
“The company has built a small LED light into the earbuds that will turn on when visual data is being fed into the cloud,” the report said.
AirPods Ultra moving toward release
AirPods Ultra prototypes are supposedly in use inside Apple, and the project has reportedly reached design validation testing, one of the last stages in development. Testers use production-equivalent prototypes to confirm a new product’s design works in real-world scenarios.
While Bloomberg stopped short of predicting a release date for AirPods Ultra, many people expect the AI earbuds this fall. They could launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iOS 27, which will supposedly feature many new AI features.
That said, the debut depends on Apple getting the AI features to work reliably. And that’s not something Cupertino has a good track record with so far. The company’s been struggling with Apple Intelligence since 2024.
AirPods Ultra likely will cost around $300 when they arrive.
More AI devices on Apple’s drawing boards
Beyond the rumored AirPods Ultra with cameras, Apple is reportedly exploring an entire lineup of AI-focused wearable devices designed to give Siri more awareness of the world around users. The biggest project is believed to be a pair of smart glasses meant to compete with Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses.
Previous reports also indicated Apple is experimenting with an AI pin — similar in concept to the ill-fated Humane Ai Pin — that could clip onto clothing and continuously feed environmental data to Apple Intelligence.
Unlike Humane’s standalone approach, Apple likely will keep the iPhone at the center of the experience, using various AI accessories as extensions of its ecosystem.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh SE/30 (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer.
That’s because he’s a “tablet first” type of guy. Rather than use a Macbook, he connects a keyboard case to the iPad. And instead of a desktop Mac, he connects his tablet to a 27-inch display and full-size keyboard. (So don’t try to tell him that everyone has to use a Mac to be productive.)
Before coming to Cult of Mac, Ed wrote for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
