Ring Introduces AI-Powered Video Descriptions for Enhanced Home Security

Ring cameras and doorbells now use AI to provide specific descriptions of motion activity | TechCrunch

Amazon-owned Ring announced on Wednesday that it's introducing a new AI-powered feature to its doorbells and cameras, which offers users specific text descriptions of current motion activity. Now, when users receive real-time notifications about happenings at their property, the updates will be more descriptive. For instance, "A person is walking up the steps with a black dog," or "Two individuals are looking into a white car parked in the driveway." The feature aims to improve upon the vague notifications that were previously available. Now, users will be able to know exactly what is happening and can quickly decide whether it requires immediate attention. It should be noted that the AI only describes the first few seconds of the motion-activated video clip. The feature is being rolled out today as an English-only beta for Ring Home Premium subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. Users can choose to disable the feature by going to settings in the Ring app. According to a blog post by Jamie Siminoff, Ring's founder and now Amazon's VP of home security, the company plans to introduce additional AI features. One of these combines several motion events happening in and around a home into a single alert. Ring also intends to implement a "custom anomaly alert" that allows users to define what constitutes an anomaly for their property, enabling the camera to notify them when such an event occurs. Additionally, Siminoff mentioned that Ring will "learn your routine," so it can inform users when something is out of the ordinary. This may be unsettling for some users, especially considering Ring's past privacy concerns. "We are just starting to scratch the surface of AI. I feel like we are back to the very early days of Ring again -- I see unlimited potential for new experiences we can invent for our neighbors," Siminoff wrote. This announcement follows the recent launch of Ring's AI-powered search feature, which enables users to locate specific moments within video recordings.

What Surprised Me About Ring's New Generative AI Camera Feature

Expertise Smart home | Smart security | Home tech | Energy savings | A/V Launching Wednesday, June 25, Ring is bringing generative AI descriptions to its home security video services. The AI will be available for subscriptions on all existing Ring doorbells and security cams. We're used to seeing generative AI create conversations with us, like more chatty versions of voice assistants, or whip up pictures or explanations on command. However, this kind of home security AI works a bit differently. Ring's AI technology can examine its video and compare it with the data it's been trained on to recognize shapes, colors and more. When recognition tech like this works, it can put together a description of what's going on in the video. Google's Gemini, for example, uses similar tech to answer questions about "Where did the kids leave the bicycle?" or "Is the trash out by the driveway?" Ring's version appears simpler to use in a passive sense -- a boon to users who prefer not to spend time interacting with their home apps. There's little to manage in settings and the descriptions are designed to be succinct and easy to understand at a glance. Instead of sending a traditional phone alert like "Package spotted," Ring's AI will send a longer text saying what it senses is going on. Those descriptions can range from "Two people are looking into a white car in the driveway" to "A dog is chewing on a pillow on a sofa." You don't have to use your Ring camera any differently -- you simply get different types of alerts that may be more helpful when making decisions, like activating your two-way audio. I'm looking forward to testing this feature and seeing how accurate it is. For now, if you're a Ring Premium subscriber ($20 per month) in the United States or Canada, start looking for updates and the new types of alerts, because they're already rolling out.

Ring's new generative AI feature is here to answer your 'who's there?' or 'what was that?' questions

Ring just added new Video Descriptions, a feature powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that will offer richer notifications of what your Ring cameras capture. The company hopes this generative AI-powered feature will provide you with more meaningful information to help you distinguish between urgent and everyday activities. Also: I found a worthy Ring alternative in this video security camera (and it has no subscriptions) "Today's advancements in AI represent something truly extraordinary -- perhaps it's safe to say this is the first technology that's impossible to overhype," said Jamie Siminoff, Ring founder, in an announcement. "This has challenged me not to think about how AI can make Ring better, but to explore how we would build Ring today if we started with AI as the foundation." The Ring Video Description feature processes your video to distinguish what was captured by the camera. Instead of sending your phone a notification that alerts you to motion or a detected person, the Ring app will generate a description of the event. Also: This is the video doorbell I recommend to most Ring users This means you'll get an app notification saying, "two people walking on the driveway with a white dog," instead of a simple "person detected." The Ring Video Description feature is compatible with all currently available Ring doorbells and cameras. It's beginning to roll out in beta today to Ring Home Premium subscribers in the US and Canada, so it is part of a paid subscription. It's also currently available in English only. Also: Best early Prime Day security camera deals: My 8 favorite sales live now "We are just starting to scratch the surface of AI," Siminoff added. "I feel like we are back to the very early days of Ring again -- I see unlimited potential for new experiences we can invent for our neighbors. The team and I look forward to introducing new impactful features to all our products, making them better and better, and helping us deliver on our mission to help protect our neighborhoods and communities." Also: I replaced my Ring with this subscription-less security camera - and it did some things better Ring is reportedly also working on new AI-powered features to combine different clips from multiple cameras together to build an event, as well as custom anomaly alerts. The latter will generate alerts when something happens that is an anomaly on your property, which means Ring will learn different patterns from your specific uses. Get the morning's top stories in your inbox each day with our Tech Today newsletter.

Ring camera alerts are about to get a lot smarter

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy is a smart home reporter who's been testing connected gadgets since 2013. Previously a contributor to Wirecutter, Wired, Dwell, and US News. Ring cameras are getting an AI upgrade that can tell you what's happening at your front door, as well as show you. Video Descriptions is a new feature that generates text descriptions of the motion activity on Ring doorbells and cameras. Now, instead of an alert that says "Front door: person detected," you'll get something like "person with broom and mop is leaving." Or instead of "Living room: motion detected," you might get "a dog is tearing up paper towels on the rug." You can see how this would be helpful; you probably don't need to do anything about the first one, but the second one demands some action. These new descriptive alerts will appear in the camera notification on your phone, so you can see at a glance if you need to bother clicking through and waiting for the video to load. Video Descriptions is rolling out today, June 25th, in beta to Ring Home Premium subscribers in the US and Canada (English only), and will work on all currently available Ring doorbells and cameras, according to Ring. In a blog post, Ring founder and recent new hire at the Amazon-owned company, Jamie Siminoff, said the feature is designed to deliver only the most relevant information. So, rather than a detailed description of the scene, the notification will focus on "describing the main subject that caused a motion alert and what action they are taking," he said. Video Descriptions joins Smart Video Search on Ring cameras, which launched late last year and lets you query your cameras about recent events via the app, such as "did the kids leave their bikes in the driveway?" Both AI-powered tools are available with the Ring Home Premium subscription ($19.99 a month), which also includes Ring's 24/7 recording option. Siminoff says Ring plans to use Video Descriptions to power more proactive home security features, including combining multiple motion alerts into one alert and, more ambitiously, to develop custom anomaly alerts. This would "generate alerts only when something happens on your property that is an anomaly," he said, explaining that Ring will be able to learn the routines of your home and only deliver notifications when something out of the ordinary happens. Meaning you might not get an alert for the person with a broom and mop leaving the house, but you will be notified that the dog is tearing up the living room. Ring isn't the only company using AI to improve camera notifications. Arlo recently launched AI-powered descriptions, which it calls Event Captions. Wyze also offers them, under the moniker Descriptive Alerts, and recently launched a No Big Deal filter that filters out all alerts other than those it deems high-priority. Google announced an AI descriptions feature powered by Gemini for its Google Nest cameras last year, but it's only available in a public preview program and is still in a limited rollout. As with Ring, all the companies require you to sign up for a subscription for these features. One big difference from Ring's offering is that both Google and Arlo offer facial recognition, which Ring doesn't. This should make descriptive alerts more useful. Getting a notification that "Johnny is opening a car door in the driveway" is more helpful than "A person is opening a car door in the driveway." Cameras see a lot of things you don't need to know about, and notification fatigue is a real thing when it comes to alerts. Anything that can streamline and focus them is a good thing. AI-powered smart alerts for people, pets, packages, and vehicles were the first step, and now, more descriptive alerts with more information could make cameras more useful in the smart home. For example, the extra context text descriptions provide could be used by a gen-AI service like Alexa Plus to enable other actions in your home. Of course, more information can lead to more privacy concerns. While detailed text descriptions of activity make it easier for people to keep an eye on their property, they also make it easier to keep track of people in a home, which could be abused by unscrupulous users. Another concern is accuracy. Both of the descriptions themselves and of any custom filters Ring might offer in the future. If I don't get the alert for the person with a mop leaving the house because the AI determined it wasn't an anomaly, but actually it was a particularly fastidious burglar doing away with a fancy $700 Dyson mop, I'm going to be very annoyed.

Dog or Intruder? Ring Will Now Use AI to Tell You What Its Cameras See

Currently, you only get alerts if a Ring device detects movement or spots a person. Now those notifications will include brief descriptions of what's happening. Video doorbells and security cameras can send you helpful notifications when they detect movement in or around your home. Amazon is now taking things one step further on its Ring devices to send you AI-generated descriptions of what they see. Ring video descriptions will attempt to convey what's happening at your house ("A dog is tearing up paper towels on the rug" or "Two people are peering into a white car in the driveway"). Amazon says it made the descriptions as concise as possible to make them easy to read quickly. Currently, you get alerts if a Ring device detects movement or spots a person. But you need to open up the recording to see what's going on. Video descriptions are available in beta in the US and Canada on the Ring Home Premium plan, which costs $19.99 per month or $199.99 per year. Turn it on via Settings in the Ring app; it'll work across all of your Ring cameras. We've seen similar AI-generated notifications from Arlo, Google Nest, and Wyze. The Arlo and Nest options also add facial recognition to make video descriptions even more helpful. Amazon says to expect more AI across all of its Ring products. A blog post from Ring founder Jamie Siminoff, who recently returned to the company, teases combining motion alerts around your house into one notification. He also discusses "custom anomaly alerts" that only alert you to unique occurrences. "It will learn the routines of your residence, get smarter, and deliver peace of mind by only notifying you when it is something out of the ordinary," Siminoff says.

What's at the Front Door? Ring Cameras Add AI Video Descriptions to Alerts

Video doorbells and security cameras can send you helpful notifications when they detect movement in or around your home. Amazon is now taking things one step further on its Ring devices to send you AI-generated descriptions of what they see. Ring video descriptions will attempt to convey what's happening at your house ("A dog is tearing up paper towels on the rug" or "Two people are peering into a white car in the driveway"). Amazon says it made the descriptions as concise as possible to make them easy to read quickly. Currently, you get alerts if a Ring device detects movement or spots a person. But you need to open up the recording to see what's going on. Video descriptions are available in beta in the US and Canada on the Ring Home Premium plan, which costs $19.99 per month or $199.99 per year. Turn it on via Settings in the Ring app; it'll work across all of your Ring cameras. We've seen similar AI-generated notifications from Arlo, Google Nest, and Wyze. The Arlo and Nest options also add facial recognition to make video descriptions even more helpful. Amazon says to expect more AI across all of its Ring products. A blog post from Ring founder Jamie Siminoff, who recently returned to the company, teases combining motion alerts around your house into one notification. He also discusses "custom anomaly alerts" that only alert you to unique occurrences. "It will learn the routines of your residence, get smarter, and deliver peace of mind by only notifying you when it is something out of the ordinary," Siminoff says.

Ring can use AI to 'learn the routines of your residence'

It's meant to cut down on false positives but could be a trove for mischief-makers Ring doorbells and cameras are using AI to "learn the routines of your residence," via a new feature called Video Descriptions. It's part of Amazon's -- really, all of the tech giants are doing this -- ongoing effort to stuff AI into everything it makes. This particular feature will use generative AI to write text descriptions of the motion activity detected by Ring doorbells and cameras. As of today, Video Descriptions is available as a beta feature in all Ring doorbells and cameras, but only to Ring Home Premium subscribers in the US and Canada, and only in English. Users must enable the video-to-text capabilities through the Ring app. Once they do this, as Ring founder and Amazon VP of product Jamie Siminoff wrote in a blog today announcing Video Descriptions: The aim, according to Siminoff, is to shift more of the heavy lifting involved with home security to Ring's AI. This will also include "custom anomaly alerts," which are generated when "something happens on your property that is an anomaly to your property." And here's where it gets a little bit creepy: "It will learn the routines of your residence, get smarter, and deliver peace of mind by only notifying you when it is something out of the ordinary." This gives us pause, as opposed to peace of mind, and sounds like super-charged snooping wrapped in an AI bow. If this kind of information is not properly secured, it could be a treasure trove for thieves, burglars, stalkers, and all other sorts of mischief-makers. In December 2022, a grand jury indictment charged two US men with breaking into Ring accounts to make fake emergency calls to police ("swatting"), then streaming the audio and video as the police arrived. It's especially troubling considering Ring's past troubles with data privacy and security and its cozy relationship with law enforcement. In April 2024, US regulators ordered Ring to pay out refunds totaling $5.6 million to customers to resolve allegations that cybercriminals and rogue Ring workers alike spied on folks via their home security cameras. We've asked Ring where this information about users' home routines is stored, how it's secured, and under what circumstances it might be shared with law enforcement. We'll update this story if we hear back. In the meantime, your humble vulture will continue to stick with dumb doorbells and barky dogs to deliver peace of mind about out-of-the-ordinary occurrences at home. ®

Ring's AI video descriptions tell you who's doing what

The feature could help you figure out if something requires action. Here's a use of artificial intelligence that could be handy. Ring is adding AI-generated text descriptions of alerts. If it works well, a glance will be all it takes to tell whether something requires your attention. Ring founder Jamie Siminoff gave some examples of the new notifications. "A person is walking up the steps with a black dog" could tell you it's just the dog walker returning. Or, "Two people are peering into a white car in the driveway" could indicate it's time to call the fuzz. Siminoff wrote in a press statement that the descriptions are "intentionally concise." They only describe the main subject that triggered the motion alert and what they're doing. The Ring founder hinted that AI features were on the way when he returned to Amazon in April. "We're just scratching the surface of what we can do with AI -- and I look forward to digging into this with the team even more," he said. The feature is only available to Ring Home Premium subscribers. That's the company's most expensive tier ($20 monthly or $200 annually). Fortunately, you don't have to buy new hardware to use the feature. It's available on all currently available Ring doorbells and cameras. Video descriptions are only available in English. The feature begins rolling out today. Once available, you'll find the setting to toggle it on in the Ring app.

Amazon's Ring launches AI-generated security alerts

Ring security cameras are displayed on a shelf at a Target store on June 01, 2023 in Novato, California. Amazon's Ring video doorbell division is rolling out AI-generated notifications alerting users to unusual or suspicious activity around their home, the company said Wednesday. The tool uses artificial intelligence to generate text summaries of motion activity captured by Ring doorbells and cameras, which are then displayed as a phone notification. The summaries describe only the main subject that triggered the alert and are "intentionally concise" so that users can quickly discern whether it's urgent, Ring said. The feature is rolling out in beta starting Wednesday to Ring premium subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. The Amazon division is launching the tool as part of a broader push by the doorbell maker into AI, Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff said in a release. "We are just starting to scratch the surface of AI," said Siminoff, who founded Ring in 2011. Siminoff returned to run Ring in April after exiting in 2023. Amazon acquired Ring in 2018 for a reported $1 billion, giving it a stronger foothold in the smart home and home security categories. Ring is primarily known for its connected doorbell devices, which allow users to record activity in front of their homes, though it has expanded to include a portfolio of products ranging from camera-equipped floodlights and alarm systems to flying security camera drones. "I see unlimited potential for new experiences we can invent for our neighbors," Siminoff said. The company has long sparked controversy about privacy due to its controversial partnerships with hundreds of police departments across the U.S. Privacy advocates have expressed concern that the program, and Ring's accompanying Neighbors app, have heightened the risk of racial profiling and turned residents into informants, with few guardrails around how law enforcement can use the material. Ring in 2024 removed a feature that allowed police to request footage from users directly. Other tech companies have injected generative AI features in their products only to encounter flaws with the technology. In January, Apple disabled a feature that used AI to aggregate and summarize news notifications after it erroneously characterized some outlets' headlines. Google last year paused the rollout of its Gemini AI image generator after it produced "inaccuracies" in historical pictures.

Ring adds AI summaries to video alerts, describing what your camera sees

In a nutshell: Amazon-owned Ring is a familiar name in home security, recognized for its video doorbells and cameras that allow homeowners to keep an eye on their property from anywhere. Now, the company is introducing AI "video descriptions," a feature designed to make home monitoring faster and more informative. Instead of the usual vague notifications like "motion detected," Ring's new system sends users a concise, text-based summary of what the camera actually sees. For example, a homeowner might receive an alert reading, "A person is walking up the steps with a black dog," or "Two people are peering into a white car in the driveway." These notifications are generated in real-time and delivered directly to the user's phone, allowing them to decide whether the situation requires immediate attention or can be safely ignored. The tech behind Video Descriptions relies on generative AI, which is trained to interpret and describe visual data. When a Ring camera detects motion, the AI examines the video feed and compares it to patterns and objects it has learned from vast amounts of training data. It recognizes shapes, colors, and actions, then summarizes the main event that triggered the alert in a short sentence. The descriptions are intentionally brief, focusing solely on the most relevant subject and action, so users can make decisions at a glance without having to sift through video footage. This upgrade addresses a common problem with home security systems: notification fatigue. Traditional cameras can often bombard users with frequent, generic alerts, leading many to ignore them altogether. The upgrade provides richer context, such as distinguishing between a delivery person, a neighbor's dog, or suspicious activity, allowing users to prioritize what matters and reduce unnecessary interruptions. The rollout of Video Descriptions is currently in beta for Ring Home Premium subscribers in the United States and Canada, and it works with all existing Ring doorbells and cameras. The feature can be enabled through the Ring app, and users can opt out if they prefer traditional notifications. Looking ahead, Ring plans to expand this AI capabilities further. Upcoming features include the ability to group multiple motion events into a single alert and custom anomaly detection that learns the usual routines of a household and only notifies users when something out of the ordinary occurs. This approach, known as AI anomaly detection, utilizes machine learning to identify normal activity patterns and flag deviations, thereby making home security smarter and more efficient over time. Ring's move is part of a larger industry trend, as competitors like Arlo, Wyze, and Google Nest also introduce AI-powered descriptive alerts to their camera systems. However, Ring's focus on concise, actionable information aims to set it apart in a crowded field. As with any technology that collects and analyzes personal data, privacy concerns remain. Ring provides privacy controls in its app, including the ability to designate "privacy zones" where cameras will not record or display footage. Still, the increased use of AI in home cameras has sparked debate about data collection, accuracy, and the potential for misuse.

Your Ring Camera Alerts Are About to Be Way Better

Summary Ring's Video Description alerts provide clear, AI-generated text details about camera activity in real-time. The feature gives users useful details to distinguish between important alerts and minor incidents. Beta testing for Video Descriptions is available today for Ring subscribers in the US and Canada. Do you love your Ring doorbell and outdoor security cameras but wish the notifications or alerts were better? The latest update makes it so that your Ring camera can actually tell you what's happening outside instead of only saying, "motion detected in the driveway." Ring just announced a new feature called Video Descriptions, which is AI-powered and will generate extremely useful text descriptions for what your camera captures. So, instead of getting an alert to activity in the driveway at 2 AM that makes you panic, only to realize it's a cat wandering around at night, you'll get something like "Driveway: A black cat is walking in the yard." Related The Best Security Cameras of 2025 A security camera can deter burglars and give you a glimpse at guests or pests. Posts As you can imagine, this is a small but extremely welcome change. These new descriptive notifications make it easy to see and know what's happening, while the older style would demand immediate action and have you concerned that someone could be breaking into your vehicle. Ring's new Video Descriptions will give you smart, real-time details about the happenings in and around your home. The company shared an example where a living room camera alerts you to movement, which isn't all that helpful. Then, with descriptive alerts, you'll see something more like, "A dog is tearing up paper towels on the rug." According to Ring, these new alerts have been fine-tuned to relay only vital and helpful information. The AI is trained to recognize and describe the main focus of the situation rather than simply being descriptive about the overall scene. Basically, it'll avoid pointless things like a tree blowing in the wind, but it will let you know that a person is detected, and you may want to take action. This will save users precious time opening up the app and waiting for a video to load and play. When you get a Ring camera notification on your phone, these new descriptive alerts will appear right inside the notification next to the preview. You can quickly glance at it and continue on with your day, or watch the video and decide what course of action to take. Ring's all-new Video Descriptions are available to beta testers starting today, June 25th, for those with a Ring Home Premium subscription in the United States and Canada. According to the company, it works on all currently available Ring doorbells and cameras. Unfortunately, we're unsure when this will exit the beta and be available for everyone, or when it'll roll out to more regions. I don't know about you guys, but I'm stoked about this new feature and can't wait to try it. Video Descriptions join several other Ring camera features that have arrived over the last year or two. So, if you haven't tried one in a while, it might be worth snagging a new camera during Prime Day in July. Source: Amazon (Ring)

Ring harnesses generative AI to power Ring Video Descriptions

Generative AI will describe the motion that triggers Ring cameras and doorbells to record. Founder Jamie Siminoff says AI is "impossible to overhype." Ring is bringing generative AI to its family of home security cameras and video doorbells with a new feature called Video Descriptions. Once this feature is enabled, the motion alerts triggered by Ring cameras will be accompanied by an AI-generated analysis of the motion that triggered the camera to record. In a blog post earlier today, Ring founder Jamie Siminoff described how the push notifications Ring users receive on their smartphones when motion is detected will be enhanced with text descriptions of what that motion was. "This new generative AI feature," Siminoff said, "helps you quickly distinguish between urgent and everyday activity with a quick glance at your phone." Once you've enabled the feature, Ring's notifications will be accompanied by text descriptions of what triggered the camera to record a clip, along with whatever action the people in the camera's view are taking. Ring provided two examples: "A person is walking up the steps with a black dog," and "Two people are peering into a white car in the driveway." Siminoff says Ring "also designed the feature so the descriptions are intentionally concise, allowing you to quickly discern if something needs your attention." Ring aims to increase its use of generative AI to add more features designed to improve your home security profile, such as intelligently combining multiple motion activities happening around your home into a single alert. Siminoff described another new feature in development -- anomaly alerts -- that are generated only when something that happens on your property is a deviation from the ordinary at your specific property. The AI will learn your home's routines and alert you when something happens that doesn't fit the usual pattern. This news is part of TechHive's in-depth coverage of the best home security cameras. "We are just starting to scratch the surface of AI," said Siminoff. "I feel like we are back to the very early days of Ring again -- I see unlimited potential for new experiences we can invent for our neighbors." Ring says Video Descriptions will be to roll out in beta today, but you'll need to have an active Ring Home Premium subscription to receive them. Ring Home Premium plans cost $19.99 per month or $199.99 per year. Professional monitoring of a Ring Alarm or Ring Alarm Pro home security system costs an additional $10 per month.

Ring's new AI feature summarizes security camera footage for you -- those alerts just got less annoying

Owners of Ring cameras and doorbells just got access to a new AI-powered feature called Video Descriptions. Intended to provide a detailed description of the events recorded around your home, Video Descriptions can help you determine whether or not an activity is urgent or ordinary by sending you a concise notification about it. In a statement released about the feature, Ring's inventor, Jamie Siminoff said the company is "seizing on the potential of gen AI to shift more of the work of home security to Ring's AI." Video Descriptions is the first step in that direction, by helping users quickly determine how important a motion event is with a glance. It will be rolling out first in beta to Ring Home Premium subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. The feature can be enabled through the Ring app and will work with all currently available Ring cameras and doorbells. Once active, it will begin sending users notifications of text descriptions of the motions and activities it picks up, in real time. For example, it can provide helpful information like "two people are peering into a white car in the driveway" or my favorite example, "a dog is tearing up paper towels on the rug." Video Descriptions uses real intelligence to limit the notifications to only the main subject of the motion and their action, which keeps the alerts short and to the point. At the same time, Ring is adding custom anomaly alerts which learn the routines of your household and can send you a notification when something is out of the ordinary for your property. Siminoff said the company is thinking about how to build Ring today as if they were starting with AI as the foundation, and they are just starting to scratch the surface of AI. They see unlimited potential for using it in new experiences they can invent for their customers. "The team and I look forward to introducing new impactful features to all our products, making them better and better, and helping us deliver on our mission to help protect our neighborhoods and communities."

Ring Adds AI Video Descriptions to iPhone App Notifications

Ring is updating its iOS app with support for AI-powered video descriptions, with a quick text-based summary of what's going on in video footage. The AI summaries show up in motion notifications, so when you get a motion alert on iPhone, you'll be able to see a text summary of what the camera has detected. The text alerts show context about what's happening so you can decide whether or not you need to tap into the video feed to see more. Ring says that the text alerts are meant to give customers with the ability to distinguish urgent activity from everyday activity at a glance. Video descriptions describe the main subject in the video that caused the motion alert, and the action that's happening. Video descriptions are available for all existing Ring doorbells and cameras, and are rolling out to Ring Home Premium subscribers in the United States and Canada starting today. The feature can be turned on in the Ring app.

Is that a burglar in your home, or just the dog? Your Ring camera can now tell you instantly - here's how

This article is part of TechRadar's Smart Home Week 2025. From lighting and switches to robot vacuums and smart thermostats, we're here to help you pick the right devices to make your life easier, and get the most out of them. If you've got a Ring security camera or doorbell, there's good news - you can now get AI-generated notifications on your phone, describing exactly what's happening before you've watched the video. Each notification will include a brief snippet of text describing what triggered the motion detection, so you can decide whether it needs your attention or not at a glance before you tap through and open the app. The notifications are designed to be as succinct as possible, focusing on the person, animal, or object that's moving, and what they're doing. Video descriptions work with all Ring video doorbells and cameras, and are rolling out to Ring Premium subscribers in the US and Canada from today (international release dates are yet to be announced). For more details about Ring memberships and pricing, take a look at our full guide to Ring subscriptions. This isn't the first time Ring has used AI to describe what's going on in your video clips. Earlier this year, the company launched Smart Video Search, which lets you use natural language to look for specific events recorded by your doorbell or camera, so you don't have to spend time scrubbing through footage to find a particular moment. Ring's Video Descriptions (as the feature is officially known) sound like a welcome addition to the company's best video doorbells and best home security cameras, and I'm looking forward to testing them myself to see how accurate they are. Back in 2023, my colleague Lance Ulanoff tested a security camera that promised to deliver AI-generated notifications based on analysis of a single frame of video. The Psync Camera Genie S is compact and cute-looking, with features including object-tracking, but its Chat GPT-powered descriptions were often wide of the mark. During testing, the camera produced a deluge of notifications, which were often comically inaccurate. While it could usually detect people, it would often say they were carrying something that they weren't, and once the camera claimed an entire family was sitting around an empty dining room table. Psync's software also hallucinated a motorcycle visible in a closed shed, and a child playing in a deserted yard. Two years is a long time in tech, so I'm cautiously optimistic that Ring's smart descriptions will be much more accurate than that.

Amazon's Ring launches AI-generated security alerts

Amazon's Ring video doorbell division is rolling out AI-generated notifications alerting users to unusual or suspicious activity around their home, the company said Wednesday. The tool uses artificial intelligence to generate text summaries of motion activity captured by Ring doorbells and cameras, which are then displayed as a phone notification. The summaries describe only the main subject that triggered the alert and are "intentionally concise" so that users can quickly discern whether it's urgent, Ring said. The feature is rolling out in beta starting Wednesday to Ring premium subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. The Amazon division is launching the tool as part of a broader push by the doorbell maker into AI, Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff said in a release. "We are just starting to scratch the surface of AI," said Siminoff, who founded Ring in 2011. Siminoff returned to run Ring in April after exiting in 2023. Amazon acquired Ring in 2018 for a reported $1 billion, giving it a stronger foothold in the smart home and home security categories. Ring is primarily known for its connected doorbell devices, which allow users to record activity in front of their homes, though it has expanded to include a portfolio of products ranging from camera-equipped floodlights and alarm systems to flying security camera drones. "I see unlimited potential for new experiences we can invent for our neighbors," Siminoff said. The company has long sparked controversy about privacy due to its controversial partnerships with hundreds of police departments across the U.S. Privacy advocates have expressed concern that the program, and Ring's accompanying Neighbors app, have heightened the risk of racial profiling and turned residents into informants, with few guardrails around how law enforcement can use the material. Ring in 2024 removed a feature that allowed police to request footage from users directly. Other tech companies have injected generative AI features in their products only to encounter flaws with the technology. In January, Apple disabled a feature that used AI to aggregate and summarize news notifications after it erroneously characterized some outlets' headlines. Google last year paused the rollout of its Gemini AI image generator after it produced "inaccuracies" in historical pictures.

Ring is using AI to generate video descriptions of what goes on outside your door -- and to keep even more detailed tabs on 'the routines of your residence'

Whenever I disappear back into the wood from whence I came, I'm always greeted by the glower of a Ring doorbell on the porch of my childhood home. Sure, it's pretty neat the app notifies us with snapshots of curious deer on the family's doorstep, but I can't quite banish the question of how easy these devices are to hack and who else might be watching. Anyway, now Amazon wants to add AI to that anxious equation. Amazon announced that AI generated video descriptions are coming to Ring notifications, allowing users to "quickly distinguish between urgent and everyday activity with a quick glance at your phone." These video descriptions are designed to be to the point, and to focus only on what the main source of motion captured by the Ring device is doing. So, the next time a forest friend comes for a visit, my folks might get a notification that reads something like 'a deer is eating your tulips again'. A beta version of these video description alerts has already begun rolling out for Ring Home Premium subscribers in the US and Canada. These will also be available regardless of which Ring camera subscribers have, but currently only English-language video descriptions are available. So far, so-not-actually-that-anxiety-inducing -- and arguably an accessibility win for visually impaired folks. However, Amazon wants to leverage AI in a far wider reaching capacity. Jamie Siminoff, the founder of Ring and now the VP of Product at Amazon, outlined a vision where AI would be used to monitor multiple points of motion around users' homes. He writes, "We will be adding custom anomaly alerts, which generate alerts only when something happens on your property that is an anomaly to your property. It will learn the routines of your residence, get smarter, and deliver peace of mind by only notifying you when it is something out of the ordinary." This is presented as working towards Ring's "mission to help protect our neighborhoods and communities." However, given the company's track record with regards to device security and respecting the privacy of its customers, I'm less than enthused by this latest AI innovation. You see, back in 2023 the FTC charged Ring "with compromising its customers' privacy by allowing any employee or contractor to access consumers' private videos and by failing to implement basic privacy and security protections." This followed multiple reports of hacked Ring devices being used in 'swatting' incidents and to spy on children. The 2023 FTC ruling ultimately resulted in $5.8 million dollars of consumer refunds last year. However, these security issues aren't just an issue for Ring customers; the fact these devices are designed to look outwards from your front door or porch means it's not easy for anyone to opt out of Ring's surveillance. With all of that in mind, this latest push to collect even more data on the day-to-day routine of, say, my folks (and assorted nearby woodland creatures) by way of the black box of AI feels farcical at best.

Amazon's Ring Now Uses AI to Inform Users About Activities at Their Homes

It works with all currently available Ring doorbells and cameras Amazon's Ring, a smart security device brand, introduced a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature on Wednesday. Dubbed Video Descriptions, the feature uses generative AI to send motion activity-based text notifications to users who have installed the company's video cameras and video doorbells. The brand also highlighted that it is now trying to incorporate more AI tools and features in its devices and in-app experience. Notably, Ring mentioned that the new AI feature will be compatible with all the currently available doorbells and cameras. In a newsroom post, Ring's founder, Jamie Siminoff, introduced and detailed the new AI feature. He explained that, with advancements in AI, the company is now exploring ways to leverage this technology to improve users' lives. Calling it the "first cornerstone pieces of our AI work," Siminoff introduced Video Descriptions. The new AI feature is aimed at letting users differentiate between urgent and everyday activity inside and outside their homes, without having to watch videos about every captured motion. With Video Descriptions, AI models use computer vision to analyse the video content and generate a textual description of the same. This description is then shared along with the video footage as a notification. This means users can first read what the captured motion is, before checking the video for added clarity. The post mentions that the feature has been fine-tuned to ensure that the notifications only describe the main subject that caused a motion alert and the action made by them. Some examples shared in the post include "A person is walking up the steps with a black dog," and "Two people are peering into a white car in the driveway." Notably, the company did not disclose the name of the AI model powering this feature. Siminoff added that the Video Descriptions feature will act as a foundation for the company, and more AI features will be built to expand its capabilities. One such expansion mentioned in the post includes AI-powered notifications that combine multiple motion activities around the house into a single alert. Ring also plans to build a custom anomaly alert feature that will only be sent when "something happens on your property that is an anomaly to your property." Video Descriptions is currently available in beta to the Ring Home Premium subscribers in Canada and the US. It is currently available only in the English language and can be enabled through the Ring app. All the currently available Ring doorbells and cameras support this feature.