Why Apple’s camera-equipped AirPods may not be the ‘pervert pods’ consumers fear

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1:29Executives that understand them. Tune in for insights and a long-term perspective on investing. And of course, stock ideas, plenty of them. To quote a listener, it pays to listen. Check us out and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Why Apple's camera-equipped AirPods may not be the pervert pods consumers fear. I'm Emron Jake and your daily crunch for Wednesday, featuring three big tech headlines, starts right now. After numerous lawsuits over AI chatbot's lack of safety measures, leading to teen suicides and other mental health concerns, OpenAI on Monday announced the launch of ChatGPT for teens.

2:08Yeah, the new product promises to include additional safety measures, as well as the educational crisis of ChatGPT-assisted cheating in schools. Now, on the educational side, ChatGPT for teens introduces a new study mode feature and other tools designed to encourage teen users to engage their curiosity and work through problems, not just get quick answers. You see, as OpenAI explains in a blog post, the study mode option will give teens guiding questions and step-by-step support to help them understand the material. Meanwhile, the teen experience will also include homework reminders that appear when a teen appears to be trying to cheat, instead of, you know, understanding the material.

2:51The AI chatbot will then push the teen to use study mode instead. The app will also support quizzes and learning visualizations and controls that allow parents or guardians to decide when study mode is enabled by default, the company says. Now, it's not exactly clear how difficult it'll be for teens to escape these new systems if they decide not to cooperate. Teens are incredibly adept at working around parental controls and other attempts to lock down digital experiences, as we all know. So, until ChatGPT's teen mode can be put to more strenuous tests, it's unclear how difficult it'll be to work around these safety measures in reality.

3:30And there's also the question as to why these protections weren't part of ChatGPT from the get-go. I mean, the AI chatbot first arrived in late 2022 and scaled to 900 million weekly users before meaningful safeguards designed specifically for teenage users were ratted. OpenAI says the age-appropriate protections will now be on by default in ChatGPT for teens, which are designed to reduce exposure to harmful or developmentally inappropriate content. Parents will also be able to use the family tools and parental controls previously introduced to manage settings, receive safety notifications, and set quiet hours, among other things.

4:09Well, Peacock is the latest streaming service to raise prices with its cheapest ad-supported Select plan increasing from$7.99 to$8.99 per month. The ad-supported premium tier now costs$12.99 per month, up from$10.99 per month, while the ad-free premium plus plan is increasing from$16.99 to$19.99 per month. Now, the price hikes will go into effect August 18th for new and returning subscribers. Current subscribers will see the increased prices on their next billing date after September 17th. These price changes allow Peacock to continue to create the best experience for its viewers remain competitive in the marketplace, and deliver unique content across all genres, the company wrote on a support page.

4:58Current annual subscribers and users with active promotional offers will keep their existing rates until their plans or promotions expire. Peacock has added new features to its streaming service in recent months, including an AI-powered Bravoverse vertical video feed with clips from franchises like The Real Housewives and Vanderpump Rules. The service is also adding a feature that will eventually let fans stream live games in a vertical format that uses real-time, AI-driven cropping optimized for phone screens. The streamer recently launched two new mystery games, Law & Order Clue Hunter and Public Eye, which both come from AI gaming startup Wolf Games.

5:37Peacock, like other streaming services including Netflix and HBO Max, has been steadily raising its prices in recent years, with its most recent price hike taking effect in just July 2025, when prices increased by$3. The latest increase marks the platform's fourth price hike in as many years. Camera-equipped AI wearables today have developed a bit of a, shall we say, reputation problem. You see, devices like Meta's Ray-Bans raise concerns about people being recorded without their consent. So, the idea that Apple is reportedly preparing to release AirPods with cameras in them seems to conflict with the iPhone maker's desire to position itself as a privacy-focused tech company.

6:19But Apple's now-leaked camera-equipped AirPods may not be as creepy as they first sound. You see, the rumored cameras were reportedly confirmed via video footage found in Apple's macOS 26.7RC, short for Release Candidate or the Final Test version of the software before it ships publicly. The footage shows a man holding up a book while wearing AirPods and apparently having a conversation with Siri about it. The audio track accompanying the video says, With visual intelligence, your world becomes savable. See something you like? Just ask me to save it for later. Now, the addition of cameras to the popular wireless earbuds is further confirmed through code that references a hair-detected error, which would warn users when the hair is covering the AirPods camera.

7:05Now, the launch of such a device could very easily backfire on Apple if not done right. But Apple wasn't born yesterday, so it appears to have thought this through based on prior reporting. You see, according to an earlier report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the AirPods with cameras won't be able to record media. As Gurman put it, The cameras essentially act as eyes for the Siri digital assistant and aren't designed to take photos or video. These components, located in both the right and left earbuds, allow the device to capture visual information in low resolution. In other words, the goal isn't to turn one of Apple's best-selling accessories into a surveillance device, lest they become pervert pods.

7:46It's to provide a way for AirPods owners to engage with the newly upgraded Siri AI, which is set to ship in September with Apple's iOS 27 and other software updates. And folks, that's your Daily Crunch. Today's stories were reported by Asha Malik, Sarah Perez, and more awesome TechCrunch journalists. We'll see you here tomorrow, same Tech Time, same Crunch channel, and until then, find us at TechCrunch.com.