Skip to main content

THE WIRED APP IS HERE

DOWNLOAD NOW »

Samsung's Bespoke AI Fridges Will Soon Recognize Thousands Of Items, Thanks To Gemini

A software update will roll out this month to 2024 and newer Samsung fridges with its AI Vision cameras, allowing them to go from identifying 37 common food items to thousands. That's because the old software relied on a local AI model to parse those items, but the new model heads to the cloud for processing with Google's Gemini model, so it's capable of identifying thousands of food items. The whole point is to make it easier to categorize what you have in your fridge, making trips to the grocery store a little easier.

Released on 05/01/2026

Transcript

Nearly every Samsung appliance today has some form of AI.

AI is here.

AI is here.

[gentle rhythmic music]

AI is here too.

This is the old software version

of Samsung's AI Vision Bespoke fridge.

I right now can put something like 37 ingredients in here.

So, let's say a piece of garlic, put it in there,

the camera takes a picture, identifies what it is.

Now, it logs it on the screen,

and that's helpful for in the future

if you're at the grocery store.

Do you need garlic?

Well, it already says and knows that you have it in there.

If you put something in like a Coke can, for example,

it'll actually take the picture,

but you still have to manually input that information.

So, even though this is one of the most

visually identifiable items in the world,

it doesn't know that this is a Coke can.

That's where the software update comes in.

The old software's object recognition is local,

whereas the new software does this all in the cloud.

And all of that is actually powered

by Google's Gemini large language model.

You still can't really access

the Gemini voice assistant on this fridge.

You're still dealing with Bixby or Alexa.

We should be able to just pop this Coke can in,

and over on the screen

automatically has identified and labeled

this was indeed a can of Coke that I put in there.

I didn't have to input the information myself.

And you can see over here that it's actually doing that

for all of these different products.

So remember, we're going from 37 items

that it used to be able to identify to thousands more.

It can identify that this is specifically

classic DiGiorno pizza.

Now, because this is cloud-based processing,

there is always an increased privacy risk.

Samsung says if these cameras do capture a face,

that face will be blurred.

So, that's an extra privacy precaution,

but there is an inherent privacy risk to this version

compared to the older software.

This software update is available to 2024 and newer fridges

with that AI Vision camera,

and it'll be rolling out in early May.