When you say artificial intelligence (AI) these days, ChatGPT and similar products come to mind. The generative AI apps are available online on any platform, ready to help improve your productivity. Or waste time and AI resources to have fun. Dealer’s choice. But it’s not just smartphones and computers that get AI features, and Samsung’s new line of home appliances is proof of that.
Ahead of CES 2024, Samsung unveiled the brand new 2024 Bespoke 4-Door Flex Refrigerator, which will come with an AI Family Hub Plus. The fridge features a 32-inch screen ready to run apps like YouTube and TikTok or mirror your Galaxy phone’s display. But, more importantly, the AI features of the new Bespoke fridge can recognize what food items you might have, and suggest recipes based on it.
The refrigerator uses a camera that runs an all-new AI Vision Inside software. That is, previous Bespoke fridges had cameras inside. But the new model will come with enhanced AI features.
The camera will be able to recognize items being placed in and out of the refrigerator. The Vision AI technology can identify up to 33 fresh food items based on training that included looking at around one million food photographs. That’s a limited number of food items, but you have to start somewhere.
Moreover, the fridge’s software, which sounds strange to say, will let you add expiration dates for the items inside. That way, the fridge can alert you that something is about to go bad. That’s a neat feature to have, at least in theory. In practice, I wouldn’t see myself adding expiration dates to anything I’d store in any smart fridge.
The Samsung Food app is where the recipe magic should happen. Placed in the Family Hub Plus, the app features several upgraded AI tricks.
“Personalize” is one of them, and it’s apparently enhanced by something Samsung calls Food AI. The new Bespoke fridge will be able to take into consideration additional dietary requirements when suggesting foods. On top of vegan and fusion, the fridge can accommodate gluten-free, pescatarian, dairy-free, and other diets.
The fridge also features a Tailored Meal Plan that analyzes users’ information from the Samsung Health profiles. After that, it can create personalized meals based on their health needs. Now, that’s a useful feature I’d want to take advantage of as a runner relying on ChatGPT to complete a full marathon, and eat as healthy as possible.
Finally, the Image-to-Recipe AI features take advantage of the enhanced Vision AI to recognize meals and multiple food items from photographs. It can then explore dishes that can be made with that. Then again, leftover pizza and a half-full jar of pesto won’t get you very far.
All that sounds great, but don’t get too excited about the 2024 Bespoke 4-Door Flex Refrigerator yet. Samsung has not announced a release date or a price for it, though it might reveal those details at CES.
In addition to the new Bespoke smart fridge, Samsung also announced the new Anyplace Induction Cooktop and Slide-in Range, which come with LCD screens of their own. Finally, the Bespoke Jet Bot Combo also gets AI features.
I’ll also point out that Samsung’s most exciting AI development will come after CES 2024. That’s the Galaxy S24 series, which should be an AI phone, according to most rumors and reports.
