Future Apple Watch Will Have Cameras, Be Able To ‘See The Outside World,’ Says Mark Gurman

Apple is developing many iterations of its future Apple Watch with cameras and visual intelligence in a bid to reposition the device as more of an AI wearable. Future Apple watches will be able to “see the outside world” using these built-in cameras, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg wrote in his latest Power On newsletter. 

According to Gurman, the Cupertino major is developing camera-equipped Apple Watch versions for both standard and ultra variants. Like the iPhone, the camera on a regular Apple Watch would be built into the display. However, it is unknown if this would be used with display technology or if a camera cutout would be required.

The camera could be adjacent to the side button and digital crown on the side of the Ultra model, partly because these watches have more room on the sides. According to Gurman, it would be quite simple for Ultra users to aim their wrists at objects for scanning through the cameras.

Apple’s current Visual Intelligence technology—which the company has integrated into the latest iPhone models and also plans to include in AirPods—would complement this AI drive. Visual Intelligence currently uses Google and OpenAI’s ChatGPT extensively. However, Gurman claims that Apple wishes to do this job internally:

“Apple’s ultimate plan for Visual Intelligence goes far beyond the iPhone. The company wants to put the feature at the core of future devices, including the camera-equipped AirPods that I’ve been writing about for several months. Along the way, Apple also wants to shift Visual Intelligence toward its own AI models, rather than those from OpenAI and Google.”

Gurman stated that the new Apple Watch and the expected camera-equipped AirPods will not be released until at least 2027. With the recent executive reshuffle at Apple, it remains to be seen how Apple’s AI teams move forward with these developments.