AI reveal in
f[A]ncy new fr[I]dge
“The chilling tech, which goes on sale today, uses AI to manage the fridge’s contents… ”
Today’s Daily Star front page headline – “Fridges are Snitches” – was brought to my attention by ‘a local source’ (no names!), and having read accompanying fun-filled article (byline: Isobel Dickinson), that declared a new Samsung AI-enabled, ‘Family Hub’ fridge-freezer to be both “chilling” in its purpose, and “so not cool” for its potential to “grass you up for late night raids” – via an in-door camera capable of identifying items removed and the faces of those who have removed them (disclaimer: I haven’t fact-checked the veracity, or found evidence for, the claim of identifying human users) – I have been tempted to paddle in the shallows of the smart fridge’s latest iteration.
Admittedly, “snooping” is not one of the fridge’s main stated purposes, which are highlighted by its marketers (according to the article) as “making life easier”, minimising time spent on “chores”, and freeing up your time “to do the things you love”. The kind of language typically deployed by those hoping to 'nudge’ us into a buying-mode that they fear may not be so easily triggered by our ‘better natures’ – which, at the very least, feels patronising, and, at its worst, is just insulting.
On the plus side, there is an intention behind the tech to help minimise food waste, for which domestic homes bear a huge responsibility, and which has a significant impact on a variety of problems – climate change among them. Simply put, fridges are often where we store our food only to forget it, and for long enough that we are finally ‘obliged’ to throw it away in large quantities. Of course, if fridges weren’t designed to essentially conceal more than they reveal, and if we weren’t encouraged to keep them ‘full’, this might not be a general pattern of behaviour – it’s not because we’re at ‘fault’ necessarily that it has de facto become a general failing, it’s because we are human that we behave like many other humans.
The cameras and the identifiers are intended as a means of helping us avoid this problem – the fridge will take stock of our stores, remind us of what we have added and subtracted, where and when we placed it, how long it’s likely to last, … – it can even give us reminders and recipes for using said items – within the limits of what it ‘knows’, and the limits, of course, of whoever has been thinking about the kinds of items it might be required to recognise. It can’t recognise anything that it hasn’t already ‘learned’ to recognise and, depending on the state of advancement of its learning, may still misidentify some of those it has. But, caveats aside, it may also work to help us manage the contents of the fridge with less food going to waste – which is all positive.
OTOH, reps trained in its functionality and demonstrating its utility at trade fairs while using tomatoes and eggs as examples of the kind of foods it will recognise – both items, arguably, better off not stored in a fridge at all – are perhaps not our best hope for those able to deal with issues of complexity or difficulty, or even for representing the level of thinking that may be going on at earlier stages of development – but then they are employed at the coal-face of selling appliances, not to debate in fine-tuned detail the pros and cons of why this tech exists, or where it might currently be reaching beyond its grasp.
Sifting the gimmick from the gain is where the rubber really hits the road, and where we are required to do the due diligence of asking a few searching questions – of those creating and selling the tech, and of ourselves – what do we stand to gain or lose from these innovations and their application?
“Today we usher in a new era of domestic appliances with AI built-in, so families can take advantage of its clever technology …”
And if you want a fridge that is also a TV, phone, loudspeaker, doorbell (with visuals), informer of the state of play of washing machine and/or oven, calendar, reminder, shopping list helpmate while out of the home, and whatever other elements are within the scope of its glorified phone screen interface – situated like a giant fridge magnet on its door – maybe this is the fridge that you have been waiting for. I still have more questions than answers from what I’ve seen and heard so far, but enjoyed the lols in the meantime from the Daily Star’s ‘nudging’ to take a closer look at some of the workings.
