Ring cameras can now recognize faces and help to find lost pets (techcrunch.com)

Amazon today rolled out a major AI upgrade for Ring cameras and doorbells, unveiling "Familiar Faces" facial recognition, an Alexa+ Greetings assistant, a neighborhood pet‑search tool called Search Party, and a new Retinal Vision imaging stack with 2K and 4K hardware. Familiar Faces lets users enroll friends and family so devices notify only on unfamiliar visitors; Alexa+ can give contextual visitor details and personalized greetings. Search Party crowdsources lost‑pet sightings across nearby Ring cameras and uses AI to surface likely matches (sightings must be voluntarily reported). The Retinal Vision suite includes a Retinal Tuning routine that continuously optimizes video quality; new Retinal 2K and Retinal 4K models ship with these features and are available for pre‑order (selected prices: Indoor Cam Plus $59.99, Wired Doorbell Plus $179.99, Wired Doorbell Pro $249.99, Outdoor Cam Pro $199.99). For the AI/ML community the launch signals increased edge/cloud fusion: on‑device enrollment and alerts paired with neighborhood‑scale matching and server‑side model inference for pet recognition and video enhancement. It also reignites privacy and surveillance debates—Ring’s history of police ties and data missteps means these identity and networked‑search capabilities will be scrutinized even as Amazon emphasizes user controls and opt‑in reporting. Familiar Faces and Alexa+ roll out in December; Search Party for dogs arrives in November, with cats and other pets planned later.