this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2026
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They deserve to sell none of their shitty fridges.
using AI and privacy in the same sentence should be a crime. almost everything AI does is datamining people.
This is the same Samsung that sold fridges with giant LCD screens on them, ostensibly to help the buyer, but then later turned that expensive screen into a billboard showing ads to the fridge buyer in their kitchen (source). Samsung has shown who they are. Anyone that buys an AI fridge from them will have no one to blame but themselves.
These also have an entire computer running Tizen behind the screen in the door, which generates waste heat and dumps it... into your refrigerator. Genius!
That's some fancy active cooling on that computer. Possibly overkill.
I feel like the problem here is that you get people who are curious or like the other features the fridge has and just get what they can when theirs goes out. And while, sure, those people learn not to do that again, by that point the industry used that sales data as a "they must like it, lets do it across the board!" Instead of asking people or taking anything else into account when figuring out what products to continue making.
In 10 yrs when those fridges die and people who "learned their lesson" go to buy a new fridge, there will be zero fridges without AI because marketing thought thats why they bought it and no one has any ability to buy a non-AI fridge anymore.
I think you are giving people too much credit. Lots of people have a budget they can spend on appliances (like a credit line) and they get the best (most expensive) one they can get on that budget. Others will do the opposite and get the cheapest but only people like you find on Lemmy (Linux users for instance) in my experience will make a choice in the middle based on feature set.
I went with the middle dish washer and it has tuned out to be a series of planned obsolescence repairs. I’m handy enough to do them all, but I know it’s just a matter of time.
We’re on year six (it had a 5 year warranty). I’m determined to make it last until 10 at least.
That's more like two years for Samsung fridges, where the designers and builders spend all of their time on fancy horseshit and ignore basic requirements like "keep the food cold".
Part of what makes us intelligent is learning from others. I guess I would expect buyers to do even the most basic research on a large dollar figure purchase which would likely expose them to the headlines about Samsung putting ads on fridges after the sale.
Do people actually just walk into an appliance store and just drop more than $1k on what they see on the floor without researching reliability, warranty, or other features from articles and news sources?
I did buy a replacement refrigerator based on "no ice dispenser, fits in available space" on a Saturday when mine let out the magic smoke that morning. It was delivered the next day and worked out ok.
I would not get something fancier without doing research. This one was literally the only refrigerator that fit the bill at the store (weird-sized refrigerator alcove)
Was that the only refrigerator store close to you, so even if there were other choices that fit manufactured you wouldn't have been able to lay your hands on one?
There was Home Depot, Best Buy, and Lowes. I looked at their in-stock offerings online and only one of them had something that would work. I tried out a floor model, it seemed fine. I couldn't spend too much time on the decision because I was playing host and didn't want my house guest to worry about her food spoiling. (She has dietary restrictions and enough food anxiety as it is.)
Well sure, if you're in a time crunch that makes sense. Additionally, you did attempt to shop elsewhere, but in your case it was such a specialized opening you only had one choice from all the retailers available to you. I imagine, had there been multiple to choose from, you would have examined the choices more closely, right?
Probably, yeah. Tbh, it was not wanting an ice maker that was the biggest hang-up. We didn't have a water line to the old refrigerator and I was tired of visitors trying to use the non-functional door ice maker on the old model.
Apparently a large percentage of people buy cars without test driving them... so probably.
My AI-less, internet-less fridge is quite private and secure. Furthermore, it keeps food perfectly cold!
It isn't sexy, but products that just work are 100x better than products with 40 features that can all brick it for no reason or annoy you to death.
You know that is a lie, a lip service for the gullible mass. Samsung just does not care about security and privacy because it does not boost their profits.
Yup, I think an ice dispenser and a fancy-schmancy high speed water tap is justifiable for most people, but I can't think of a realistic use case for a screen that outweighs the many negatives.
There's an effort combination here - to buy things that just work, you need not only demand, but their sufficient production and companies choosing that niche to concentrate, because they don't have an option of something with "AI".
It's like negotiation, of what to produce. There's elasticity of demand based on niche similar to that of demand by price. If you need a fridge and there are only AI fridges offered, you'll buy an AI fridge.
So you won't be able to buy something that just works when all companies with sufficient power to design and produce fridges want AI.
There's also some stickiness there, like a hysteresis, and the current combined effort at AI promotion, even if not at equilibrium of said AI's attractiveness for said elasticity, will hold. Unless there will be another combined effort at killing it with fire.
That is similar to 4:3 display ratio, ergonomic user interfaces, or perhaps home appliances that came with schematics, but not anymore.
It might not be sexy, but I'd argue it doesn't need AI to be.
Take the SMEG ones as an example - they're not my cup of tea, but the amount of people who are willing to pay a premium for a fridge that doesn't do anything special other than looking nice shows clearly that.
it will be on the people, if they buy a fridge named "SMEG"
They might also be paying a premium for a refrigerator with that name specifically.
SMEG-MA.
Smeg-heads do be like that.
that's ma SMEG. They really should think of a name change.
Do they... do they know what the C in CES stands for?
Judging from the way AMD got up and spent all their time talking about their data centre products, nobody does.
Connected?
Nothing now. The branding has completely pivoted, CES isn't even an acronym anymore.
cunts
I've had a few Samsung appliances. They are, by far, the worst appliances I've owned. I will not be buying another from them. If they want to make life more convenient, they need to make better devices, not shove screens, wifi, and AI into their crappy products.
Don't worry, in the realm of major appliances the majority of what these bozos are calling "AI" actually isn't. They're just using it as a buzzword because they think it's popular.
LG, selling a washing machine two years ago: "It has weight sensors to determine the load size."
LG, selling the same damn washing machine today: "With exclusive LG® AI DD™ Technology!!!"
(I am not making this up.)
Even their older, simpler fridges are crappy. We bought one because our previous fridge conked out in mid-pandemic when the selection of new appliances was low. It lasted about three years before developing an issue that would have cost us more to fix than just replacing the damned thing. So we replaced it with some cheaper probably-Chinese brand I'd never heard of before and will never buy another Samsung appliance again if we can help it. AI will just add expensive, useless functions on top of their already poor design and dubious manufacturing.
In other words, if these become the only fridges in existence, I may just try to find out where I can purchase an old-fashioned icebox.
I have a rule: if the company has ever made a mobile phone or TV I will never buy their appliance.
So it's like fashion shows, where they have the most ridiculous shit walking down the catwalk, instead of actual clothes that people will wear?