Ring's Jamie Siminoff thinks AI can reduce crime

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Vox Media Podcast Network

Technology, Business

4.3 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2025

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jamie Simonoff, founder of Ring, won't let me call him the CEO. He says his title is and always has been 'chief inventor.' His mission with Ring is to make the world safer, and he has a pretty expansive view of what that means. He told The Verge last month he thought Ring could 'almost zero out crime' in some neighborhoods within a year or two. That's a big promise — and also potentially a very troubling one, as we face the erosion of privacy and a surveillance panopticon that only ever seems to expand. Read the full interview transcript on The Verge. Links: Ring CEO: Cameras can almost ‘zero out crime’ within 12 months | The Verge Ring plans to scan everyone’s face at the door | The Washington Post Ring’s Search Party is on by default; should you opt out? | The Verge Ring now works with video surveillance company Flock | The Verge US spy agencies getting a one-stop shop to buy personal data | The Intercept Do Video Doorbells Really Prevent Crime? | Scientific American Ding Dong: How Ring went from Shark Tank Reject to Everyone’s Front Door | Amazon Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright. The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's time for Black Friday at Dell Technologies.
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0:20.3	It's time for Black Friday at Dell Technologies. Save big on PCs like the Dell 16 Plus featuring Intel Core Ultra Processors. Shop now at Dell.coma EK. forward slash Black Friday. Hello and welcome to Decoder. I'm Neil Appetal, editor-in-chief of The Verge, and Decoder is my show about big ideas and other problems. Today I'm talking to Jamie Siminoff, the founder of Ring, the video doorbell and security company. Jamie actually won't let me call him the CEO. He says his title is and always has been chief inventor. So obviously we talked about that a little bit. Jamie's just published a book about his experiences launching and leading ring. It has a
0:54.2	great title. It's called Ding Dong, how Ring went from Shark Tank Reject to everyone's front door.
0:59.5	And I have to admit, that is a great title for a doorbell company. The last time I interviewed Jamie,
1:04.1	it was all the way back in 2018, right after he'd sold Ring to Amazon. And when we were piloting
1:09.6	Dakota on the Vergecast with some sneaky backdoor interviews, since then, Jamie left Ring to Amazon. And when we were piloting Decoder on the Vergecast with some sneaky
1:11.4	backdoor interviews. Since then, Jamie left Ring and Amazon started and sold another company,
1:16.3	and he's only recently returned to Amazon to lead Ring once again. In that time, we also started
1:21.2	Decoder, so it felt like the perfect opportunity to talk to Jamie about why he left, why he came
1:25.5	back, and what's next for Ring.
1:32.2	Jamie's mission with Ring has always been to make the world safer, and he has an expansive view of what that means. Seriously, you're going to hear him mention Ring's new AI-powered
1:36.5	search party feature that helps to find Lost Dogs a lot during this conversation. But his
1:41.7	goals and his vision for safety are enormous. He recently told
1:45.8	Verge reporter Jennifer Toey in an interview last month that he thought Ring could quote,
1:49.4	almost zero out crime in the average neighborhood within the next year. That's a big promise right
1:55.2	on the face of it. It's also potentially a very troubling one as we face more and more erosion
1:59.7	of privacy and a surveillance panopticon
	...

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