Category: 3. Business

With the upgraded AI Vision, Samsung becomes more fluent in food recognition and expands the reach of kitchen experiences

 

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced that it will unveil its latest kitchen appliances lineup at CES 2026, including the latest iterations of its Bespoke AI Refrigerator. Alongside refreshed designs across the lineup, the company will highlight meaningful improvements to vision-based AI functionality enhanced with Google Gemini and Google Cloud, showing how these innovations simplify everyday tasks and elevate the overall kitchen experience.

 

“In pioneering the application of vision-based AI technology, Samsung has led innovation in the kitchen appliance market,” said Jeong Seung Moon, Executive Vice President and Head of R&D Team for Digital Appliances (DA) Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung will reach a new level of innovation through this collaboration with Google Cloud and will utilise these ongoing initiatives to continue to deliver better consumer experiences in the upcoming year.”

 

Introducing Samsung’s Latest AI Vision–Equipped Refrigerator

At CES, Samsung will present a new Bespoke AI Refrigerator Family Hub, equipped with the upgraded AI Vision. The feature’s key upgrade is its functions built with Google Gemini, which marks the first time that it is being integrated into a Samsung refrigerator.

 

Previously, the Family Hub’s AI Vision feature could recognise up to 37 types of fresh food and 50 types of pre-registered processed food on-device.[1] The latest version ready to be unveiled at CES is built to unlock its existing limitations to recognise more food items, offering a comprehensive and flexible experience.

 

It is planned to even recognise processed foods without separate registration, automatically registering their names to increase convenience. Furthermore, Samsung aims to use this technology to detect user-labeled items, such as foods stored in personal containers, which can be added to the food list manually.

 

With ingredients being identified more accurately, managing the food list becomes clearer and easier than before, broadening people’s food-related experiences. At CES, Samsung plans to showcase the enhanced capabilities and new use cases of AI Vision, demonstrating the future of a truly personalised AI kitchen.

 

Samsung Australia is yet to announce local availability of the new Bespoke AI Refrigerator Family Hub[2].

 

 

Enhanced Wine Management with the New Samsung Bespoke AI Wine Cellar

 

Samsung will exhibit the new Bespoke AI Wine Cellar, designed to incorporate an AI Vision built with Google Gemini similar to that of the Bespoke AI Refrigerator.[3]

 

When users store or remove wine bottles from the wine cellar, a camera positioned at the top of the unit will recognise the labels and tracks bottles, updating the SmartThings AI Wine Manager[4] accordingly. The system will also be able to distinguish the specific shelf and compartment where each bottle is placed, allowing users to easily check locations without searching manually. Through the AI Wine Manager, users will be able to look up wine information more conveniently and receive suggestions on pairings based on the type of wine in their inventory, making wine curation more intuitive and personalised.

 

Samsung Australia has not confirmed whether the Bespoke AI Wine Cellar will be part of its 2026 Home Appliance line-up at this time.

 

Visitors at Samsung’s booth at CES 2026 will be the first to see these new innovations. Learn more about Samsung’s CES activities https://news.samsung.com/au/

 

[1] As of April 2025, AI Vision can recognise 37 food items like fresh fruits and vegetables. Items need to be scanned 1 at a time. If the food is not recognisable, it may be listed as an unknown item. AI Vision cannot identify or list any food items in the fridge door bins or freezer. It recognises food items based on deep learning models, which may be updated periodically to improve accuracy. AI Vision also recognises packaged food items that have been saved by the user, and up to 50 items can be saved with designated names. Packaged items are limited to those that keep a certain packaged form.

[2] Global availability of The Bespoke Family Hub with Google Gemini is yet to be announced.

[3] The recognition functionality is only available for shelves with withdrawal capability. For wine input and output, the label must be exposed to the top camera for proper recognition. Additionally, the multi-pantry drawer provides food storage functionality, and information about the food items stored in these drawers is provided as a separate image.

[4] Available on Android and iOS devices. A Wi-Fi connection and a Samsung account are required. Both devices must be signed in with the same Samsung account.

INDIANAPOLIS – December 22, 2025 – Elevance Health (NYSE: ELV) will release fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results on January 28, 2026, at 6:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (“EST”). Management will review these results and its outlook during a conference call at 8:30 a.m. EST that same morning. The conference call should be accessed at least 15 minutes prior to its start with the following numbers:

• 888-947-9963 – Access Code – 3972058 (Domestic)
• 312-470-0178 – Access Code – 3972058 (International)
• 888-566-0046 – No Access Code (Domestic Replay)
• 203-369-3677 – No Access Code (International Replay)

The replay will be available from 11:30 a.m. EST on January 28, 2026, until the end of the day on February 27, 2026. The call will also be available through a live webcast at www.elevancehealth.com under the “Investors” link. You may also access the webcast here.  A webcast replay will be available following the call.

About Elevance Health

Elevance Health is a lifetime, trusted health partner whose purpose is to improve the health of humanity. The company supports consumers, families, and communities across the entire healthcare journey – connecting them to the care, support, and resources they need to lead better lives. Elevance Health’s companies serve over 109 million consumers through a diverse portfolio of industry-leading medical, pharmacy, behavioral, clinical, home health, and complex care solutions. For more information, please visit www.elevancehealth.com or follow us @ElevanceHealth on X and Elevance Health on LinkedIn.

Investor Relations:
Nathan Rich
Investor.Relations@elevancehealth.com

Media Relations:
Leslie Porras
Leslie.Porras@elevancehealth.com

The Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE) has honored Weina Li with its Career Achievement Award. Li is a materials scientist whose pursuit of her Ph.D. led to her doctoral research at the University of Connecticut’s Institute of Materials Science (IMS) and a career that now spans more than two decades of impact across aerospace, energy, and manufacturing.

Li serves as a technical fellow in materials and chemistry at Carrier—and is the first woman to hold the title of fellow at the company. In that role, she guides research and development strategy, strengthens engineering practices, and invests in developing early‑career talent. She has reinforced her commitment to her alma mater by serving as a member of the IMS External Advisory Board, where she helps steer academic/industry partnerships and workforce development.

Launching her career from the IMS laboratories under the advisement of IMS Director Steven L. Suib, Li built expertise in nanomaterials and translated that foundation into technologies that reach the marketplace. She helped secure $1.2 million in public funding to design lightweight, lower‑impact materials for aerospace, coordinating efforts among corporate teams, universities, and suppliers. In the energy sector, she has advanced flow‑battery systems through government-supported programs and commercial deployments, work that supports decarbonization goals and grid resilience.

Before being named a fellow, Li led suppression chemistry programs at Carrier, managing a global network of collaborators. The program improved coordination, sharpened execution, and reduced costs in suppression‑agent manufacturing while accelerating more sustainable product lines. A consistent theme across her roles is aligning research milestones with customer needs and business outcomes.

In additions to holding 14 U.S. patents, Li has served as a mentor to many aspiring engineers with an emphasis on preparing women and youth for success in the STEM field. Within Carrier, she champions cultural awareness and inclusivity that strengthen belonging. In the community, she volunteers in schools and language programs, encouraging young people to value cultural diversity and to explore STEM.

Weina Li’s career reflects the qualities SASE highlights with its Career Achievement Award: sustained technical leadership, successful cross‑sector collaboration, and a deep commitment to opening doors for others. For UConn, her trajectory—from campus research to external advisory board service and industry leadership—illustrates how the University’s research enterprise and partnerships prepare scholars to deliver tangible impact.

Update estate planning documents and beneficiaries

The end of the year is a good time to make sure your estate planning documents still reflect your wishes. You might have created them years ago, and the people you appointed to make medical or financial decisions for you may no longer be the right fit, Eckels says. If your children are adults now, for example, it might make sense for them to step into those roles.

Schedule an appointment with an estate planning attorney if you need to update (or create) a will or trust, name a power of attorney to make financial decisions for you if you can’t, and update (or create) a health care directive or living will that spells out what sort of end-of-life medical care you do or don’t want. 

Beneficiary designations deserve the same attention. Make sure the person or people you want to inherit your financial accounts or collect on your life insurance policy are still the ones named as your beneficiaries by logging in to your accounts or reaching out to your account administrator. “Those are easy things to update,” Eckels says.

Otherwise, your assets might end up in the wrong hands. Eckels recalls one client who, after remarrying, discovered that his ex-wife was still listed as the beneficiary on his $500,000 IRA.

Boost your itemized tax deductions

If you itemize deductions on your federal tax return, there are a couple of moves you can make before the end of 2025 to take advantage of changes to the tax rules.

The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), signed into law on July 4, increased the maximum amount of state and local taxes you can claim as an itemized deduction to $40,000, up from $10,000 in 2024. One way to take advantage of this higher limit is by paying 2026 property taxes in December 2025 if you wouldn’t otherwise reach the $40,000 cap, says Jacob Martin, a financial planner with Keeler & Nadler Family Wealth in Dublin, Ohio.

You could also reap tax savings by making charitable donations you’ve planned for 2026 now. This could increase your chances of being able to deduct the full dollar amount of your contributions due to another OBBB change.

“Starting next year, there is a 0.5 percent adjusted gross income [AGI] floor on charitable giving before you can deduct those gifts,” Martin says. That means if your AGI is $100,000 in 2026, for example, you’ll be able to deduct only contributions that exceed $500.

Consider a Roth conversion

If you’re retired but not yet collecting Social Security benefits, you may be in the sweet spot for a Roth conversion, Baucum says.

“Those years when income is temporarily low are a prime window for converting traditional IRA dollars into a Roth IRA at a lower tax rate,” she says. That’s because you’ll have to pay income taxes on the amount you convert. But you can reduce your lifetime tax burden, she says, considering that Roth withdrawals, unlike traditional IRA withdrawals, are tax-free.

If you aren’t 65 and haven’t enrolled in Medicare yet, be aware that a Roth conversion could impact your future Medicare premiums. The premium for Medicare Part B — which covers doctor visits, diagnostic screenings and other outpatient care — is based on your income, and high-income adults can be swollen by a surcharge called the Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA).

“Keep tabs on IRMAA when doing your Roth conversions because how much taxable income you have now may impact your Medicare premiums two years from now,” says Bill Shafransky, a senior wealth adviser with Moneco Advisors in New Canaan, Connecticut. “It could be a rude awakening, especially if you haven’t planned out that far.”

Washington, DC: An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission team led by Ms. Vladkova Hollar visited Cairo from December 1-11 and held productive virtual discussions with the Egyptian authorities thereafter on a package of economic and financial policies that could underpin the completion of the Fifth and Sixth reviews under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement, and first review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).  

At the conclusion of the discussions, Ms. Vladkova Hollar issued the following statement: 

”The IMF team and the Egyptian authorities have reached staff level agreement on the fifth and sixth reviews under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement and the first review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF). 

“Stabilization efforts have delivered important gains and the Egyptian economy is showing signs of robust growth. This stability has been achieved amid a challenging regional security environment and heightened global uncertainty. Economic activity picked up to 4.4 percent in FY 2024/25, from 2.4 percent the previous year. The recovery was broad-based, supported by robust performance in non-oil manufacturing, transportation, finance and tourism. Economic activity accelerated further in Q1 FY2025/26, reaching 5.3 percent (y/y). 

“The balance of payments has improved markedly, despite adverse external developments. In particular, the current account deficit narrowed, as both remittances and tourism receipts remained buoyant, and non-oil exports registered strong growth. External financial conditions eased significantly in 2025, with the stock of non-resident inflows into local-currency debt rising to around USD 30bn, and foreign currency reserves reaching USD 56.9bn. 

“Fiscal performance has remained robust, with a primary balance surplus of 3.5 percent of GDP in FY 24/25. Despite strong performance of tax revenues that grew by 36 percent in FY 2024/2025 and 35 percent during July-November 2025/26, through reforms to widen the tax base, improve voluntary tax compliance, and streamline exemptions. The tax-to-GDP ratio remained at modest levels by international standards in FY24/25 (12.2 percent of GDP). Thus, continued efforts are needed to close the tax-to-GDP gap and place gross budget sector debt on a firm downward path while safeguarding targeted social spending.

“The central bank of Egypt (CBE) has maintained an appropriately tight monetary policy stance, pursuing a cautious and gradual monetary easing to sustain disinflation efforts. Going forward, this careful management of the easing cycle should continue, as month-on-month inflation readings suggest that disinflationary pressures are not yet firmly entrenched. Headline urban inflation edged up slightly to 12.3 percent (y/y) in November after hitting a 40-month low in September. This is the result of tight fiscal and monetary policies, the elimination of FX shortages, and the dissipating impact of earlier exchange rate depreciation.

“The large presence of state-owned banks in the financial system requires continued robust governance practices to maintain financial health, strengthen a market-based transmission mechanism for monetary policy, and promote competition in the banking sector. To that end, the CBE is committed to follow through on the initiated third-party reviews to ensure that best practices are followed.   

“The authorities reiterated their commitment to maintain fiscal discipline, reduce gross financing needs, and place budget sector debt on a sustained downward path. In this regard, they are targeting a primary balance surplus (including net acquisition of financial assets) of 4.8 percent of GDP this fiscal year, and 5 percent of GDP in FY 26/27. The cabinet is also expected to approve a growth-friendly package of tax reforms in January 2026 to increase tax collections by about one percent of GDP next fiscal year. While EGPC’s financial position remains a source of fiscal risk, recent measures have contributed to improving its finances, including by reaching cost recovery on products covered by the retail fuel indexation mechanism. The authorities also reiterated their commitment to increasing allocations to the conditional cash transfer program (Takaful and Karama) along with human capital and other targeted social protection measures and programs. Given the importance of these programs, the mission suggested that consideration be given to increasing further the budgetary envelope allocated to these areas. 

“With the macroeconomic stabilization now underway, it is critical for Egypt to transition toward a more sustainable economic model through the acceleration of reforms that would provide the private sector the space and the opportunity to flourish. In this context, the authorities and IMF team discussed the objectives of the National Narrative for Economic Development, which prioritizes a reform agenda aimed at transforming Egypt’s growth model toward a more competitive, private sector driven economy. The authorities have also taken steps to improve the ease of doing business, especially on trade facilitation and streamlining tax related procedures, where private sector participants have acknowledged the results already achieved in this area. Going forward, efforts to reduce the role of the state need to be accelerated. This includes significant further progress with the divestment agenda, and additional efforts to level the playing field, and avoiding the establishment or expansion of activities of existing SOEs and other economic authorities. 

“Reforms related to the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) are on track, and the authorities have already implemented two key measures related to mitigation (i.e. publishing of a schedule outlining the implementation plan to achieve renewable energy targets), and climate finance (directive issued by CBE to mandate banks to monitor and report exposure to firms that may face material transition risks from the adoption of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism). The authorities are also making good progress toward delivering on the remainder of the reform measures. 

“The IMF team would like to express its gratitude to the Egyptian authorities for the constructive discussions and warm hospitality during the mission”.  

• Posted On:
  Dec 22, 2025
• Written By:
  Caitlin Berkey