- Samsung AI fridges are failing in South Korea ahead of a national holiday
- It doesn't just shut down the smart display, it stops them from keeping things cold
- A broken SmartThings update appears to be to blame, and engineers will visit affected customers to apply the necessary fix
There is a case to be made against stuffing AI and smart tech into every single gadget: case in point, units from Samsung's smart fridge series, which have started shutting down and leaving food uncooled in South Korea after a bad software update was pushed out.
As Notebookcheck reports, this has left users very angry — and right before the Chuseok national holiday too. A host of fridge owners are saying that after an update in SmartThings, their appliances almost immediately stopped working. No interior light, no touch pad functionality, and no refrigeration.
It looks as though the Bespoke AI 4-Door Refrigerator model is the one most affected by the serious glitch, and according to ZDNET Korea, an internal testing software version was rolled out by mistake. Samsung has acknowledged the error, paused the update, and is promising to send out engineers over the holiday break.
However, users are reporting they're only able to book engineers for after Chuseok ends, on Saturday, September 26. "Now it looks like I'll have to throw away all the holiday food I bought ahead of the break," said one disgruntled user (via Google Translate), as per SBS News in South Korea.
Turn it off and on again
Samsung isn't sharing details of how many people have been affected by this, but considering the volume of complaints, it seems to be a significant number. As yet, there's been no mention of any compensation for the fridge contents that will be spoiled — and there doesn't seem to be a fix other than to wait for an engineer.
The unfortunate fridge owners who've been hit by the bug have been resorting to dry ice and ice boxes to try and keep their food and drink cool, but all efforts to roll back the update have proved unsuccessful. Turning the fridges off and on again doesn't work, and nor does removing and reinstating them on the SmartThings platform.
It does seem as though the update was halted before it reached any Samsung fridge customers outside of South Korea, which is good news — but not much consolation for those who are affected. Losing a few smart functions is one thing, but to have the units completely shut down is… well, it's enough to make you rethink the idea of a smart major appliance.
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