Apple is trying to draw a line between its AI wearables and the backlash now surrounding products like Meta's AI glasses.
At an event, Apple CEO John Ternus was asked about the criticism around what some people call 'pervert glasses.' Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Greg Joswiak, joked: 'That's quite a marketing slogan.'
Ternus said Apple wants to build the features so 'people feel comfortable using it, and people around the user feel comfortable about its existence.' That privacy pitch came as Apple introduced two new AI-enabled listening features for the next generation of Apple Watches.
Apple said the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 will include optional 'audio intelligence' features. Depending on a user's preference, Siri can listen to conversations throughout the day. Apple says the features do not start working until on-device AI detects speech, and that no audio is recorded or stored.
One feature, 'Siri Recap,' can listen to meetings or even a user's whole day and generate 'high-level' notes on what happened. Another, Live Rewind, shows a text snippet of the last 15 seconds of what was said around the user on the watch screen.
Ternus and Joswiak said neither feature includes speaker attribution. They also said there is no audio recording that the user can store for later playback, and that Apple does not have access to raw audio files. Joswiak said that means Apple cannot be compelled to turn over an audio file.
Apple also said Live Rewind and Siri Recap will be available in beta later this year.
Meta has been working to defend the reputation of its own AI glasses, emphasizing a light that alerts people when recording is active. It has also tried to stop users from tampering with that light and said it will remove 'harassing' videos recorded by the glasses from Instagram.
For Apple, the business case is clear: trust is product design. If AI devices are going to sit on a founder's wrist, in a meeting, or in the middle of a workday, the company has to sell comfort before convenience.
The real challenge is whether users and everyone around them buy that promise. In wearables, privacy is not just a feature. It is the whole adoption curve.
