Apple Watch adding two new AI features that make me nervous about privacy

The latest watchOS 27 beta has been released and it introduces two new Apple Intelligence features for Apple Watch that rely on listening into conversations the smartwatch wearer is having.

watchOS 27.3 beta is with developers now and includes the new Siri Recap and Live Rewind features for the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4. Both features, which were previewed earlier this year, involve an always-on microphone.

Live Rewind effectively enables you to hear what was said in the last 15 seconds of a conversation if it was something you misheard or didn’t quite understand. It involves giving the Digital Crown a double press and it’ll show what was said as text.

Siri Recap goes all-in by taking notes on your conversations to “create high level Apple Intelligence-generated summaries that you can use later to job your memory.” Apple says it’s going to help you stay present in the moment. These Recaps can be saved or automatically deleted after seven days.

I don’t own an Apple Watch, but I might be a little more careful about what I say when I’m around an owner. If I were an Apple Watch owner, I’d probably feel the need to tell people about this if the feature is turned on. Apple is clearly conscious of the privacy worries. It says no auto recordings are actually made of your conversations, nor is it stored.

“Audio flows into a protected buffer inside the S11 chip’s Secure Exclave — a hardware-isolated compartment built into the silicon of Apple Watch and iPhone that processes sensor data separately from the rest of the system,” Apple says. Data that is processed and analysed in the Secure Exclave can’t be accessed by the operating system, apps, you, or even Apple. Once processed, this data is immediately deleted.”

The company says Live Rewind and Siri Recap aren’t supposed to be a permanent record of a conversation. Other Apple Intelligence features that involve that always-on microphone include Shazam and Sound Recognition. They already went live with earlier versions of watchOS 27.