00:00Ring's Super Bowl ad showcasing AI to help find lost pets has put a new spotlight on the expanding role
00:07of artificial intelligence in home security and it's raising fresh questions about surveillance. Joining us now is Jamie Simenoff founder
00:16and chief inventor of Ring. Jamie safe to say these cameras have become ubiquitous. I saw in weapons you know
00:26they were highlighted as a way to investigate the disappearance of children.
00:29That was a fictional movie. But clearly clearly law enforcement is hoping to use these cameras more and more. How
00:39do you where do you draw a line between you know helping people find lost pets or people and trying
00:46to limit the surveillance of U.S. citizens. I mean the line for us is simple and it always has
00:52been that you control your video and if you want to share it with law enforcement.
00:58If you want to share it with a neighbor you can do that but you always control your video. In
01:02the case of search party for dogs we just tell you hey this dog looks like this dog in front
01:07of your house. Do you want to contact your neighbor? If you say no you're 100 percent anonymous. If you
01:11say yes then you talk to your neighbor just like you did when you found their dog in front of
01:15your house years ago and called the number on the tag.
01:22I do want to ask you because there's this big question of surveillance and the usage of it. You had
01:27told Fortune talking about the missing case of Nancy Guthrie basically saying that there were more cameras in the house.
01:33You might have been solved and Jamie you face a little bit of backlash online for those comments.
01:37So I would love to just give you the opportunity just to explain your thinking there and clear up any
01:42misunderstandings.
01:44Sure. I mean if you actually saw the quote it's not it's not that but what I did say and
01:48what I do is I wake up every morning you know with a mission and and knowing that the business
01:55that we're in has been extremely impactful.
01:57And we see it to the video evidence that so far that they have in the Nancy Guthrie case I
02:04think everyone would agree is some of the most impactful evidence in the case.
02:09And so what I did say is that if there had been just more cameras in general I would have
02:15hoped that this would have helped us get to a resolution in the case.
02:18And that is what I believe in. I mean this is what I do every day and I think it's
02:23hard to watch a Dateline episode or anything else not seeing where Ring has had a major impact in helping
02:29solve cases.
02:31And I do believe you know as I think I should that more cameras should help solve more cases and
02:38reduce more crime.
02:39How do you work with cyber security within your firm because you know I also have a ton of cameras
02:47around my house and I would hate to have anyone else tap in to that network and use my video
02:55surveillance against me.
02:57I'm sure it's something you think about often Jamie. So what kind of work do you do to counter that
03:03kind of cyber attack.
03:05Yeah I think cyber and security is a living breathing thing. You have to just continue. I mean you have
03:10to continue to invest in it. You have to have people always looking at it. It's always changing and evolving.
03:14I think we're best in class in it. Also we offer with I believe we're one of the only companies
03:18in the world that offers in this space end to end encryption as an option.
03:22So we really do focus on security. We focus on trust. We need we call our customers neighbors. We need
03:28our neighbors to trust us or else obviously they're not going to want to have our products.
03:31And then I can't achieve my mission of making neighborhoods safer.
03:35And Jamie just just on this point bringing it back to AI too because AI is advancing so rapidly.
03:41There was the story for example of a Chinese home vacuum robot robot brand that someone used Claude to hack
03:48into and accidentally hacked all 7,000 of those robot vacuums in the world.
03:54AI is getting really advanced but it's also exposing some security flaws.
03:57What do you and the team need to do at Ring to make sure you're keeping up with the technology
04:02not just mistakes like that but bad actors who are increasingly able to use AI?
04:08I mean there's always been security threats and the security threats I'd say what's good is that as AI gets
04:13better it means that you're counter security you're countering these kind of things is also getting better.
04:19And so it's just it's just a cat and mouse game that we've always had from the beginning of the
04:24company and you know I believe we're best in class at it but it is something you have to stay
04:29focused on.
04:29I mean security for every company in the world you got to stay on your toes.
04:33Because we always had to AI is just the new thing that's happening today and then you also help you
04:38know use this technology to also do the counter threats or counter measures.
04:42I want to ask about manufacturing because President Trump is trying to bring manufacturing back to these shores and Ring
04:48Camera obviously is a booming business that uses a lot of hardware.
04:53I would imagine for the most part manufactured in Asia how do you when you talk to the administration or
05:02when you talk to government leaders impress upon them the fact that you just we we just can't in this
05:08country really compete in terms of price on manufacturing this kind of hardware.
05:15You know I mean certainly it's a complex one you know there's an ecosystem around this stuff and that's what
05:20we're seeing but I am hopeful that you know over the next few years with what's happening that we will
05:27continue to move and onshore things and be able to do more of it.
05:30So I do think it's going to take time for businesses like ours because they are ecosystem things you know
05:35there's probably 900 to a thousand parts in every single Ring Camera that come from different suppliers.
05:41And so it's just going to take time but I am seeing that I say a lot of good you
05:47know positive sort of direction on that in terms of the tariff uncertainty that businesses are dealing with Jamie how
05:54do you face that you know when you're when you're looking at tariffs that are you know 20 percent then
06:01all of a sudden they're 80 percent and now they're 50 I mean how do you deal with that as
06:05a as a CEO.
06:08You know I mean I'm I'm sort of a CEO but I'm also a founder you know I started this
06:11in my garage in in California 15 years ago I'd say tariff uncertainty compared to the things that I've lived
06:19through is is while it is serious it's not as serious as all the other stuff that I've gone through
06:24and I think when you're a founder and you've you know faced bankruptcy many times and trying to raise money
06:29and things changing that are completely out of your control I think he just hardens you a little bit I
06:33have a pretty thick skin.
06:35We just have to keep you know keep our heads down I tell the team like we all we can
06:38do is control our inputs just keep inventing great products making neighborhoods safer and we'll get rewarded for doing that
06:44and we just got to like you know hope that the world continues to go in a positive direction which
06:49you know so far it has.
06:50So I'm not thinking about the hardware that goes into it Jamie I'm thinking about the coding and the software
06:56and the technology within it what is your talent pool look like are you still expanding when it comes to
07:03hiring engineers or are you looking at technology that's making your employees more efficient and maybe means you need less
07:09of them.
07:10I mean certainly we are embracing AI I am you know pushing every team member here to be AI first
07:17thinking AI we are seeing great efficiencies from that we're also growing really fast though so it's hard to tell
07:23you know we are still I'd say a net grower and so we are still growing our features are coming
07:29out faster though now our product cycle times are definitely been reduced by like you know almost triple digit percentage
07:36I mean it's like it's it's incredible
07:38how efficient we are efficient we are now getting with AI and what it's doing that said we're also still
07:45growing we have lots lots of ideas and and business to build so you know on the on the bigger
07:51picture I don't know where where that goes but I do know for ring where you know we're still growing
07:54and still building.
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