it's so they know what to advertise to you
Fuck AI
"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"
A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.
AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
It's probably not using any AI in any modern sense of the word, it's just there for marketing purposes. What I'm guessing it really is, is more fancy sensors (temperature sensors in more locations, infrared sensors, moisture sensors), and multiple heating elements and/or fans that can be individually turned on and off, connected to a more complicated PID controller that is adjusted based on the selected dish. So it can do things like detect that the rear is hotter than the front and turn off the real heating element, or detect if too much moisture is being released and turn down the temperature, but it's ultimately the same kind of technology as any oven with a temperature knob uses.
I rarely use my oven for anything other than pizza, bread and cookies, so it's probably not very useful to me, but maybe it's convenient if you do things like cooking a whole turkey or something?
I don't have a link but there was a great video about an "AI rice cooker" and then a breakdown of the quite simple fuzzy logic actually inside
Rice is the food that needs that shit the absolute least. Rice cookers perfectly solved that problem decades ago with magnets and heat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSTNhvDGbYI
Neuro Fuzzy by Zojirushi? That rice cooker is awesome, but predates AI. Here's an archive link to the product from 20 years ago: https://web.archive.org/web/20050717012420/http://www.zojirushi.com/ricecookers.html
I can see a few uses for a smart oven like that, for lazy cooking by inexperienced chefs.
For example different meats require different cooking temperatures. If the computer knows that it's cooking beef and that you want it medium rare, then it should be able to calculate from the shape + weight + evolution of outside temperatures when the inside of the beef is at the right temperature. With a normal oven you'd have to guesstimate the time yourself (hard without experience) for when you should start probing the meat with a meat thermometer.
The added value for an experienced chef is probably nil. They know when the meat is ready by look and feel and they might probe it once to confirm that they were right.
It needs to know so it can send your data to whatever company made it, duh. Nothing will go wrong giving ai control over something that can start a fire in your house.
Navigating through the extensive settings menu is beautifully simple with the new touch screen user interface.
I am sorry, a fucking settings menu on an oven is a primary sales argument?
Lol fuck that. A touchscreen certainly isn't a selling feature on a device I expect to be reliable. And why would I want a menu of options for a device that normally offers all its settings up-front?
They even brags about internal steak and bread thermometers, we have had those for decades.
And they either break after a few uses or they just don't read the temperature properly and cause the oven to set the temperature incorrectly.
Well obviously, it has a connection to an app or even a smart speaker, and ofcourse the UI on the oven is a touch UI.
If it doesn't work without a network connection I don't want it. An appliance should be dead-simple, standalone, with near-bulletproof electronics and no built-in process decisions that are not clearly surfaced to the user.
Thanks, but no thanks, I'll keep using my oven with normal knobs....
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
The manufacturers' reasoning here is presumably that the more technology is built into a device, the faster it becomes obsolete, and the sooner consumers will have to buy new devices.
This is a classic example of consumer-unfriendly design, in which manufacturers ensure that devices have a limited useful life or a purposely frail design. This is called planned obsolescence and can be achieved through both mechanical means and software.
Why does an oven need to connect to an app for the clock to be set?
Ask Samsung
This was an oven from Siemens
The AI companies are investing into AI startups, and then showing all the sales as "proof" to investors that they're viable so they can get infusions of cash.
When bubble bursts it will either devistate the world, or force us to rapidly switch to an entirely planned economy.