 General Douglas MacArthur famously told West Point cadets, “We listen vainly, but with thirsty ear.” In classical rhetoric, that’s known as catachresis – mixing two things that don’t belong together in order to deliberately jar your audience. According to Sophi Charara at Wired, Apple may have plans to create an actual catachresis by putting cameras in its next generation of AirPods. If so, we suggest a marketing campaign along the lines of: “Apple: Our Thirsty Ears Are Watching You.” It’s likely part of an AI device push, and if Charara’s sources are accurate, Apple employees are currently in the late stages of testing technology that will effectively give Apple eyes on the sides of our heads. That’s a very different (and highly concerning) privacy profile than what phones are currently capable of – and much more eerily akin to Meta’s invasive smartglasses, for which the law has yet to catch up. Privacy laws, therefore, won’t be up to speed when Apple starts watching as well as listening. Fortunately, the law may have some time to catch up given the enormous technical constraints of integrating visual intelligence with wireless earbuds. But Apple will get there eventually, that much is certain. The company’s first attempt at camera-based wearable computing – the Vision Pro – struggled commercially, but the ambition hasn’t died. It’s just getting smaller, cheaper, and easier to wear. All of it serves as a reminder that “wearables” as a category are exploding. In the end, it matters less whether it’s Apple or Meta or Google, or whether the device is a watch or glasses, or earbuds. What matters most is that the time is now for the American people and Congress to proactively apply the law against the inevitable data grab that’s coming. Comments are closed.
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