Samsung Goes All-In on AI

Samsung unveiled its future vision for AI in the home at CES in Las Vegas. The idea is simple—and ambitious: everything communicates with everything.

Whether it’s your hi-fi system, TV, refrigerator, washing machine, or vacuum cleaner, Samsung wants every device in the home to be equipped with AI. All of these products are then interconnected, creating what the company envisions as a seamlessly cooperating ecosystem designed to make everyday life easier. That is, of course, assuming you buy all your devices from the same manufacturer. At CES in the US, Samsung showcased this concept in a large, dedicated exhibition called “Companion to AI Living.”

It all sounds very appealing, and Samsung will certainly not be the only major player pursuing this direction. A key issue, however, will almost certainly be compatibility. Each manufacturer is likely to develop its own ecosystem. We already see how this plays out in many home automation products today. The end result is often slower adoption, which is unfortunate. Open communication protocols are becoming more common, which helps—but when it comes to AI, it may still take quite some time.

Privacy Concerns

Then there is the question of privacy. If everything is constantly connected to the internet, manufacturers gain access to an enormous amount of information about their customers’ daily lives. Samsung has previously faced criticism over televisions that collected too much data. That issue was resolved—but only after it was discovered by third parties. The idea of AI acting as an unrestricted data collector in the home is therefore somewhat unsettling, especially since most devices are not capable of processing AI tasks locally on the device itself.

This leads to one final sensitive point. In recent years, we have increasingly seen perfectly functional hardware become unusable simply because software updates are discontinued. Sometimes a basic function still works, but in other cases the device simply stops being useful altogether. That’s bad for consumers’ wallets and bad news for the ever-growing mountain of electronic waste.

There is nothing inherently wrong with AI, nor with software-driven hardware—both are virtually unavoidable today. But there is legitimate concern about the growing lock-in that comes with these ecosystems. Interesting years lie ahead, that much is certain.