Is Your Doorbell Getting Too Smart for Its Own Good?

Amazon’s Ring just gave itself a brain — and not everyone’s thrilled about it. The new Familiar Faces feature uses AI to recognize people who visit your doorstep often. So instead of “Someone’s at the door,” you might now get “Mom’s at the door.” Sweet, until you realize Big Tech now knows exactly when Mom dropped off lasagna.

You can label up to 50 faces — friends, delivery folks, even your neighbor who borrows your Wi-Fi — all stored neatly in Amazon’s cloud. Critics say that’s where the fun stops and the creepiness begins. Privacy watchdogs point out Ring’s bumpy record with law enforcement and data leaks, calling this move “surveillance with a smile.” Some states, like Illinois and Texas, have already banned the feature over biometric privacy concerns.

Amazon swears these faceprints aren’t used to train its AI models, but still — do you really want your doorbell remembering your ex?

On the friendlier side, Ring also launched an AI called Video Descriptions, which just tells you what’s happening instead of who it is — think “Person walking dog” instead of “Gary with midlife crisis hair.” Much less creepy.

And if that's not enough, Alexa’s now answering your door too. The new Greetings feature can chat with delivery drivers, decline salespeople, and even take messages from visitors. Basically, your doorbell’s turning into a polite but nosy butler.

Bottom Line: Ring’s new AI tricks might make life easier — or make your porch the latest episode of Black Mirror.

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