Meet the newest member of the lifeguarding staff: MYLO.
MYLO is an AI-powered pool camera and alarm system that will alert when someone appears to be drowning. The tool will also send text messages when someone approaches or enters the pool in general.
“It has the eyes of a lifeguard. It has the brains of a lifeguard,” Jonathan Jacobovitz, spokesperson for Coral Smart Pool, told NBC Miami.
MYLO has the potential to be a useful, additional safety tool at the pool. The device’s camera tracks swimmers in the water and pool owners can watch that footage from an app on their phone. The AI-powered lifeguard will analyze the footage and alert when it detects signs of drowning.
The sobering statistic of drowning deaths in the U.S. makes innovations like this one a promising next step in protecting swimmers. Drowning remains one of the leading causes of death for children in this country. In Florida alone, 64 children died of drowning in 2024 according to NBC Miami.
Technology-assisted lifeguarding tools are not a new tool in the pool space, but MYLO is the first instance of what they’re calling a true AI-powered lifeguard. As AI finds its way into many aspects of everyday life, why not the pool? MYLO joins a growing list of AI tools now on the market, like the Alexa of pool products. So long as pool owners remain vigilant and cognisant of technology’s shortcomings.
While MYLO is a piece of equipment that may have pool owners thinking the lifeguard of the future has arrived, for now, it does not replace the current, required safety measures. Pools still need to be fenced in and a human “water watcher” needs to supervise the swimmers at home pools. Human lifeguards will have their place at the water’s edge for the foreseeable future.
