Ring is using AI to generate video descriptions of what goes on outside your door—and to keep even more detailed tabs on 'the routines of your residence'

Whenever I disappear back into the wood from whence I came, I'm always greeted by the glower of a Ring doorbell on the porch of my childhood home. Sure, it's pretty neat the app notifies us with snapshots of curious deer on the family's doorstep, but I can't quite banish the question of how easy these devices are to hack and who else might be watching. Anyway, now Amazon wants to add AI to that anxious equation.

Amazon announced that AI generated video descriptions are coming to Ring notifications, allowing users to "quickly distinguish between urgent and everyday activity with a quick glance at your phone."

These video descriptions are designed to be to the point, and to focus only on what the main source of motion captured by the Ring device is doing. So, the next time a forest friend comes for a visit, my folks might get a notification that reads something like 'a deer is eating your tulips again'.

A beta version of these video description alerts has already begun rolling out for Ring Home Premium subscribers in the US and Canada. These will also be available regardless of which Ring camera subscribers have, but currently only English-language video descriptions are available.

So far, so-not-actually-that-anxiety-inducing—and arguably an accessibility win for visually impaired folks. However, Amazon wants to leverage AI in a far wider reaching capacity.

Jamie Siminoff, the founder of Ring and now the VP of Product at Amazon, outlined a vision where AI would be used to monitor multiple points of motion around users' homes. He writes, "We will be adding custom anomaly alerts, which generate alerts only when something happens on your property that is an anomaly to your property. It will learn the routines of your residence, get smarter, and deliver peace of mind by only notifying you when it is something out of the ordinary."

This is presented as working towards Ring's "mission to help protect our neighborhoods and communities." However, given the company's track record with regards to device security and respecting the privacy of its customers, I'm less than enthused by this latest AI innovation.

You see, back in 2023 the FTC charged Ring "with compromising its customers’ privacy by allowing any employee or contractor to access consumers’ private videos and by failing to implement basic privacy and security protections." This followed multiple reports of hacked Ring devices being used in 'swatting' incidents and to spy on children. The 2023 FTC ruling ultimately resulted in $5.8 million dollars of consumer refunds last year.

However, these security issues aren't just an issue for Ring customers; the fact these devices are designed to look outwards from your front door or porch means it's not easy for anyone to opt out of Ring's surveillance. With all of that in mind, this latest push to collect even more data on the day-to-day routine of, say, my folks (and assorted nearby woodland creatures) by way of the black box of AI feels farcical at best.