Apple Wants to Turn its Watches Into Wearable AI

Despite the general failure of wearable AI devices to win over consumers, and Apple’s own inability to convince people to use its AI tools, the company is apparently going to try to kill two birds with one stone by turning the Apple Watch into an AI-infused wearable. According to Bloomberg, Apple is working on a version of its smartwatch that will be equipped with cameras that will facilitate the expansion of the company’s “visual intelligence” features that are currently only available on the latest model of iPhone.

Per Bloomberg, the company is working to shoehorn the lenses into both its Series and Ultra models of the Apple Watch, with the Series expected to have a camera inside its display while the Ultra would have its camera on the side of the watch. Through the extra eye, the watch would be able to tap into the company’s visual intelligence tools, which can do things like identify objects or translate text in a picture.

As far as AI functionality goes, real-time translation has always seemed like one of the most practical features that a device could offer. And because the Apple Watch has an actual purpose beyond just being an AI novelty device—something that failed rivals like the Humane Ai Pin cannot claim—it’s probably a worthy trojan horse for AI features. Also, as is always the case with these things, it’d help Apple collect way more data to train its own systems. Meta has found some success with its Ray-Ban partnership to produce smartglasses, reportedly selling more than one million pairs, so there is some path for the AI wearable when paired with other purposes.

But Apple’s having a tough go when it comes to implementing AI features. The company already had to delay the rollout of a smarter Siri because it just couldn’t get it to work properly and consumers have largely panned the Apple Intelligence features that they have interacted with, with one survey finding that 73% of iPhone owners reporting the device’s AI features to “add little to no value.”

The company also has not exactly had luck expanding the functionality of the Apple Watch lately, either. The company has been promising a much-anticipated blood-pressure tracking feature but simply has not been able to crack it. Meanwhile, the company is also reportedly close to ditching a plastic version of the Apple Watch SE that was supposed to help bring the price of the device down.

Maybe getting a camera in the Apple Watch will help the company crack some of its other challenges. Or maybe it’ll just add more complications to a device that is at its best when it accurately tells time.