Technology

Amazon adds controversial AI facial recognition to Ring

Published

1 month ago

December 25, 2025

Amazon adds controversial AI facial recognition to Ring

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Amazon’s Ring video doorbells are getting a major artificial intelligence (AI) upgrade, and it is already stirring controversy.

The company has started rolling out a new feature called Familiar Faces to Ring owners across the United States. Once enabled, the feature uses AI-powered facial recognition to identify people who regularly appear at your door. Instead of a generic alert saying a person is at your door, you might see something far more personal, like “Mom at Front Door.” On the surface, that sounds convenient.

Privacy advocates, however, say this shift comes with real risks.

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Ring’s new Familiar Faces feature uses AI facial recognition to identify people who regularly appear at your door and personalize alerts. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

How Ring’s Familiar Faces feature works

Ring says Familiar Faces helps you manage alerts by recognizing people you know. Here is how it works in practice. You can create a catalog of up to 50 faces. These may include family members, friends, neighbors, delivery drivers, household staff or other frequent visitors. After labeling a face in the Ring app, the camera will recognize that person as they approach. Anyone who regularly passes in front of your Ring camera can be labeled by the device owner if they choose to do so, even if that person is unaware they are being identified.

From there, Ring sends personalized notifications tied to that face. You can also fine-tune alerts on a per-face basis, which means fewer pings for your own comings and goings. Importantly, the feature is not enabled by default. You must turn it on manually in the Ring app settings. Faces can be named directly from Event History or from the Familiar Faces library. You can edit names, merge duplicates or delete faces at any time.

Amazon says unnamed faces are automatically removed after 30 days. Once a face is labeled, however, that data remains stored until the user deletes it.

Why privacy groups are pushing back

Despite Amazon’s assurances, consumer protection groups and lawmakers are raising alarms. Ring has a long history of working with law enforcement. In the past, police and fire departments were able to request footage through the Ring Neighbors app. More recently, Amazon partnered with Flock, a company that makes AI-powered surveillance cameras widely used by police and federal agencies. Ring has also struggled with internal security. In 2023, the FTC fined Ring $5.8 million after finding that employees and contractors had unrestricted access to customer videos for years. The Neighbors app previously exposed precise home locations, and Ring account credentials have repeatedly surfaced online. Because of these issues, critics argue that adding facial recognition expands the risk rather than reducing it.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) staff attorney Mario Trujillo tells CyberGuy, “When you step in front of one of these cameras, your faceprint is taken and stored on Amazon’s servers, whether you consent or not. Today’s feature to recognize your friend at your front door can easily be repurposed tomorrow for mass surveillance. It is important for state regulators to investigate.” The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a well-known nonprofit organization that focuses on digital privacy, civil liberties and consumer rights in the tech space.

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Once a face is labeled by the device owner, Ring can replace generic notifications with named alerts tied to that individual. (CyberGuy.com)

Where the feature is blocked and why that matters

Legal pressure is already limiting where Familiar Faces can launch. According to the EFF, privacy laws are preventing Amazon from offering the feature in Illinois, Texas and Portland, Oregon. These jurisdictions have stricter biometric privacy protections, which suggests regulators see facial recognition in the home as a higher-risk technology. U.S. Senator Ed Markey has also called on Amazon to abandon the feature altogether, citing concerns about surveillance creep and biometric data misuse.

Amazon says biometric data is processed in the cloud and not used to train AI models. The company also claims it cannot identify all locations where a face appears, even if law enforcement asks. Still, critics point out the similarity to Ring’s Search Party feature, which already scans neighborhoods to locate lost pets.

We reached out to Amazon for comment but did not receive a response before our deadline.

Ring’s other AI feature feels very different

Not all of Ring’s AI updates raise the same level of concern. Ring recently introduced Video Descriptions, a generative AI feature that summarizes motion activity in plain text. Instead of guessing what triggered an alert, you might see messages like “A person is walking up the steps with a black dog” or “Two people are peering into a white car in the driveway.”

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Ring’s Video Descriptions feature takes a different approach by summarizing activity without identifying people by name. (Amazon)

How Video Descriptions decides what matters

This AI focuses on actions rather than identities. It helps you quickly decide whether an alert is urgent or routine. Over time, Ring says the system can recognize activity patterns around a home and only notify you when something unusual happens. However, as with any AI system, accuracy can vary depending on lighting, camera angle, distance and environmental conditions. Video Descriptions is currently rolling out in beta to Ring Home Premium subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. Unlike facial recognition, this feature improves clarity without naming or tracking specific people. That contrast matters.

Video Descriptions turns motion alerts into short summaries, helping you understand what is happening without identifying who is involved. (Amazon)

Should you turn Familiar Faces on?

If you own a Ring doorbell, caution is wise. While Familiar Faces may reduce notification fatigue, labeling people by name creates a detailed record of who comes to your home and when. Given Ring’s past security lapses and close ties with law enforcement, many privacy experts recommend keeping the feature disabled. If you do use it, avoid full names and remove faces you no longer need. In many cases, simply checking the live video feed is safer than relying on AI labels. Not every smart home feature needs to know who someone is.

How to turn Familiar Faces on or off in the Ring app

If you want to review or change this setting, you can do so at any time in the Ring mobile app.

To enable Familiar Faces:

Open the Ring app
Tap the menu icon
Select Control Center
Tap Video and Snapshot Capture
Select Familiar Faces
Toggle the feature on and follow the on-screen prompts

To turn Familiar Faces off:

Open the Ring app
Go to Control Center
Tap Video and Snapshot Capture
Select Familiar Faces
Toggle the feature off

Turning the feature off stops facial recognition and prevents new faces from being identified. Any labeled faces can also be deleted manually from the Familiar Faces library if you want to remove stored data.

Alexa is now answering your door for you

Amazon is also rolling out a very different kind of AI feature for Ring doorbells, and it lives inside Alexa+. Called Greetings, this update gives Ring doorbells a conversational AI voice that can interact with people at your door when you are busy or not home. Instead of identifying who someone is, Greetings focuses on what they appear to be doing. Using Ring’s video descriptions, the system looks at apparel, actions, and objects to decide how to respond.

For example, if someone in a delivery uniform drops off a package, Alexa can tell them exactly where to leave it based on your instructions. You can even set preferences to guide delivery drivers toward a specific spot, or let them know water or snacks are available. If a delivery requires a signature, Alexa can ask the driver when they plan to return and pass that message along to you. The feature can also handle sales representatives or service vendors. You might set a rule such as politely declining sales pitches without ever coming to the door yourself.

Greetings can also work for friends and family. If someone stops by while you are away, Alexa can greet them and ask them to leave a message for you. That interaction is saved so you can review it later. That said, the system is not perfect. Because it relies on visual context rather than identity, mistakes can happen. A friend who works in logistics could show up wearing a delivery uniform and be treated like a courier instead of being invited to leave a message. Amazon acknowledges that accuracy can vary. Importantly, Amazon says Greetings does not identify who a person is. It uses Ring’s video descriptions to determine the main subject in front of the camera and generate responses, without naming or recognizing individuals. That makes it fundamentally different from the Familiar Faces feature, even though both rely on AI.

Greetings is compatible with Ring Wired Doorbell Pro (3rd Gen) and Ring Wired Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen). It is available to Ring Premium Plan subscribers who have video descriptions enabled and is currently rolling out to Alexa+ Early Access users in the United States and Canada.

Thinking about a Ring doorbell?

If you are already in the Ring ecosystem or considering a video doorbell, Ring’s lineup includes models with motion alerts, HD video, night vision, and optional AI-powered features such as Video Descriptions. While Familiar Faces remains controversial and can be turned off, many homeowners still use Ring doorbells for basic security awareness and package monitoring.

If you decide Ring is right for your home, you can check out the latest Ring Video Doorbell models or compare features and pricing with other options by visiting Cyberguy.com and searching “Top Video Doorbells.”

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Kurt’s key takeaways

Amazon Ring’s AI facial recognition feature shows how quickly convenience can collide with privacy. Familiar Faces may offer smarter alerts, but it also expands surveillance into deeply personal spaces. Meanwhile, features like Video Descriptions prove that AI can be useful without identifying people. As smart home tech evolves, the real question is not what AI can do but what it should do.

Would you trade fewer notifications for a system that recognizes and names everyone who comes to your door? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

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Technology

The Loch Capsule dishwasher is small, fast, and efficient — it even sanitizes gadgets

Published

8 hours ago

January 24, 2026

Press Room

The Loch Capsule dishwasher is small, fast, and efficient — it even sanitizes gadgets

A dishwasher is a luxury item some people can’t live without. It’s one of the first major kitchen devices I bought just as soon as I could afford one. And now that the kids are grown, it’s the appliance I thought I’d miss most in my nomadic vanlife pursuits.

Loch sent me its $459.99 / €459.99 countertop Capsule dishwasher to review in a tiny home on a remote beach and inside a van on a two-month roadtrip. It’s an excellent product that washes and dries two place settings quickly at bacteria-killing temperatures up to 75 degrees Celsius (167F) in as little as 20 minutes. It’ll even kill bacteria and neutralize viruses on your gadgets with a waterless blast of UV-C light. Hoozah!

What I learned during this review has less to do with the device’s limitations, and more my own. Turns out that I’m willing to do a lot of dishes by hand when faced with resource scarcity, be that space, energy, water, time, or money; and I’m unwilling to become a germaphobe despite claims that cellphones are 10 times dirtier than a toilet seat.

$391

The Good

Cleans and dries in about 20 minutes
Looks good on a countertop
Fits some large pans
Sanitizes phones and washes fruit
Doesn’t require plumbing

The Bad

Loud
Expensive
Niche product

The Loch Capsule looks clean and minimalistic on a kitchen counter, in my opinion. And while the exterior is plastic, the tub is made of stainless steel, unlike most countertop dishwashers. This differentiator improves drying speed, durability, and hygiene, while helping to keep odors under control.

The unit is tall and deep enough to accommodate large dinner plates and pans that won’t typically fit inside a short and stout countertop machine. It measures 46.5 x 26.2 x 51.5cm (18.3 x 10.3 x 20.3 inches) giving it a narrow footprint and internal volume of about 30 liters. The integrated handle makes carrying the 12kg (26.4lb) dishwasher relatively easy.

If you’re making all your meals at home then you’ll probably only need to run it once per day for a single-person household, or twice for two persons based upon my experience. It comes with an external clean water tank so it can be used anywhere you have access to power and H₂O. No plumbing’s required, but a hook-up is available should you tire of refilling the tank.

All the dishes my wife and I used for breakfast and lunch came out spotless.

All but the 12-inch pan was able to fit. The optional “Dual Tray” makes good use of the void created above the bowls.

The fruit cleaning mode doesn’t dry.

A look around back. The two black boxes are for clean water and (optional) waste water if the sink hose doesn’t reach.

Setting it up is pretty straightforward. In most scenarios, you’ll plug into the wall for power, attach and fill the fresh water tank, and run a second hose from the dishwasher to the sink to dispose of the wastewater. In my van, where I had limited space for the Capsule, I had to install it in my “garage” connected to the optional waste water tank since the 1.2m/3.94ft hose was too short to reach my sink.

The glowing white display is covered in capacitive buttons that still respond to touches when my fingers are wet. The look is warm and friendly, but operation is loud, like most countertop dishwashers, something you’ll have to consider for a device meant to be used in small spaces. I measured about 56dB max from one meter. That’s much louder than my own built-in dishwasher, which operates at 38dB. The sound intensity also varies as the water whooshes and the pump vibrates. In other words, it won’t double as a white noise machine while you sleep, if that’s what you’re hoping for.

The Capsule does UV-C sanitization using a wavelength of 265–275nm.

The Capsule can also wash gadgets and fruit. The basket fits about seven apples, which take eight minutes to wash, or 12 in total if you add UV cleaning. A waterless UV mode can be used to kill surface bacteria on baby bottles and personal devices like phones and earbuds using medical-grade UV-C light.

Loading dishes into the Capsule can feel like playing expert-level Tetris. The first time I tried, it took me about five minutes to load 18 items into that small cavity. Now it takes about a minute or two, while filling and emptying the clean and dirty water containers takes another few minutes. An optional $19 “dual tray” shelf can be placed at the bottom to make space for a large pot, or at the top where it can fill any available free space to wash silverware or other small, flat items.

Several cleaning modes are available, from a 15-minute Meal Wash all the way up to a 152-minute Intensive Clean. I found the 15-minute mode to work so well that I didn’t need to resort to the longer cycles, so long as I didn’t burn anything or wait until the next day to start a wash.

To test, I loaded the Capsule with all the mess produced at breakfast and lunch by two people, including two 10.5-inch plates covered in bacon grease, silverware covered in peanut butter, a milky yogurt bowl, espresso cups, a juice glass, a chef’s knife, tongs, and a sport bottle. And while the diameter of my 12-inch pan does fit inside the Capsule, its handle does not, contrary to Loch’s claim, so I had to handwash it. (My 10-inch pan with 8-inch handle just fits, but the angle doesn’t leave room for much else.)

Everything came out clean, hot to the touch, and mostly dry in the 15-minute Meal Wash mode, on par with my much larger built-in machine. I was impressed. The cycle used 2.5 liters (0.66 gallons) of water and consumed between 220Wh and 300Wh in my repeated tests, with power usage peaking at around 900W. The 15 minute wash cycle actually takes between 20 and 25 minutes to complete. The most intensive wash mode ran for 2 hours and 28 minutes, and consumed 420Wh and almost 4 liters of water.

A 33.3 percent increase on my average daily energy usage and 100 percent increase in water consumption. I can’t justify that.

For comparison, when applying my hippie-approved vanlife dishwashing technique to the same dishes with the same mess, I was able to wash and dry everything – including the 12-inch pan – in just six minutes from one liter of water and zero power consumed. This approach involves wiping everything off with a used paper towel or discarded food packaging, filling a bowl with unheated tap water, dipping in a soapy sponge and getting to work. Mind you, vanlife is less clean than regular life, but we haven’t died yet.

If I installed the Loch Capsule in my van I’d have to run the 15-minute mode twice each day to clean all the dishes my wife and I typically use. That’s about 500Wh and 5 liters of water a day — a 33.3 percent increase on my average daily energy usage and 100 percent increase in water consumption. I can’t justify that. This dishwasher is for rigs carrying a lot more water and battery power than I do, or anyone willing to frequently dock at serviced campsites.

1/11

It fits neatly on the counter of this tiny home, with the clean water on top and the waste hose extended to the sink.

Importantly, vanlifers don’t usually travel with full-sized dishes and pans. So, a more compact countertop dishwasher from companies like Comfee or Farberware that costs around $300 or below might be a better option. Loch does sell a Capsule Solo for $399.99 without the UV stuff and plumbing hookup. It’s otherwise the same dishwasher and currently on sale for $339.99.

Even inside a tiny house I find it hard to justify the $459.99 price tag of the Capsule, even at its sale price of $390.99, despite the surf shack’s ample supply of hot water and electricity. For one or two people, it’s just faster to wash the dishes myself and I don’t lose any precious space on top of the counter, or below it. And my freshly washed hands leave me little use for a UV blaster that kills bacteria that doesn’t pose a real threat anyway.

To justify buying a Loch Capsule dishwasher you, and at most one other household member, must really hate washing dishes, have ready access to water and power, and have almost no space but still use large pans and dishes. That’s a niche, but one that the Loch Capsule dishwasher fills admirably.

The Loch Capsule is an excellent countertop dishwasher with minor flaws – it’s just not for me.

Photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

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Thomas Ricker

Technology

Fox News AI Newsletter: Historic infrastructure buildout for AI

Published

8 hours ago

January 24, 2026

Press Room

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Welcome to Fox News’ Artificial Intelligence newsletter with the latest AI technology advancements.

IN TODAY’S NEWSLETTER:

– Nvidia CEO says AI boom is fueling the ‘largest’ infrastructure buildout in history
– Apple taps Google Gemini to power Apple Intelligence
– Amazon to cut thousands of jobs in sweeping corporate layoffs

TECH TSUNAMI: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence is setting off what he described as the “largest infrastructure buildout in human history,” as companies and governments pour trillions of dollars into the computing power needed to run AI systems in real time.

TITANS UNITE: Apple and Google just made one of the most important artificial intelligence (AI) announcements of the year. Under a new multi-year collaboration, Apple will base the next generation of its Apple Foundation Models on Google’s Gemini models and cloud technology.

A Google Gemini artificial intelligence mobile phone app, arranged in Riga, Latvia, on Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek rocked global technology stocks Monday, raising questions over America’s technological dominance. (Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

JOB CUTS: Amazon is planning to cut thousands of jobs as part of a broader push to eliminate nearly 10% of its corporate workforce, according to Reuters.

GOING MOBILE: Amazon has rolled out Alexa.com, which brings Alexa+ directly to your web browser for Early Access users. Instead of relying on a speaker or phone, you can now open a laptop and start using Alexa like any other web-based AI tool.

AI FOR MAIN STREET: The House of Representatives passed a bill that would require the government to create more access to artificial intelligence (AI) education for small businesses Tuesday evening.

The chamber of the House of Representatives is seen at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 28, 2022. (J. Scott Applewhite, File)

BEYOND DATA CENTERS: Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon joins “Mornings with Maria” to discuss the next phase of the AI boom that’s expanding beyond data centers into cars, devices and robotics.

THE ENTERPRISE SHIFT: ServiceNow and OpenAI are deepening their strategic partnership with an enhanced collaboration to help enterprises accelerate efforts to turn artificial intelligence (AI) into measurable business outcomes.

JOB CONCERNS: Palantir CEO Alex Karp suggested Tuesday that usage of artificial intelligence “bolsters civil liberties,” while also warning Europe that its adoption of technology is falling behind the U.S. and China.

Co-Founder and CEO of Palantir Technologies Alex Karp speaks onstage during Jacob Helberg at the Hill & Valley Forum 2025 on April 30, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Jacob Helberg)

NOT TRUE: Billy Bob Thornton is setting the record straight about hanging up his cowboy hat. The 70-year-old star of Taylor Sheridan’s hit series “Landman” shut down rumors he’s exiting the Paramount+ drama, calling the claims false.

‘SO WRONG’: Pro Football Hall of Famer Jimmy Johnson appeared to be just as unsettled as other football fans were over an AI video that appeared of him during the college football national championship.

COMING SOON: Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Thursday the company is planning to make its Optimus robots available for sale to the public by the end of 2027.

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Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements, and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future with Fox News here.

This article was written by Fox News staff.

Technology

Meta is stopping teens from chatting with its AI characters

Published

20 hours ago

January 23, 2026

Press Room

Meta is stopping teens from chatting with its AI characters

Meta is “temporarily pausing” the ability for teens to chat with its AI characters as it develops a “new version” of the characters that will offer a “better experience.” The company made the announcement in an update to a blog post from October where the company had detailed more parental controls for teen AI use. The change blocking teens from accessing the characters will go into effect “starting in the coming weeks.”

”Since we announced our plans to build parental controls for AI characters in October, we started developing a new iteration of AI characters generally (i.e. for both adults and teens),” spokesperson Sophie Vogel tells The Verge. “Rather than building the parental controls twice (for the current AI characters and the new iteration of AI characters) we’re pausing teen access to the current version while we focus on the new iteration. When that new iteration is available for teens, it will come with parental controls.”

According to TechCrunch, “Meta said that it heard from parents that they wanted more insights and control over their teens’ interactions with AI characters, which is why it decided to make these changes.”

In October, Meta announced that parents would be able to block their teens’ access to one-on-one conversations with its AI characters, block their teens from talking with specific AI characters, and share insights with parents on the topics their teens discuss with Meta’s AI characters and its AI assistant. The original plan was to roll out those controls early this year.

Last year, also in October, Meta changed Instagram teen accounts to allow teens to be able to see content that’s reflective of what might be shown in a movie rated for people that are 13 or older.

Update, January 23rd: Added information from a Meta spokesperson.