I guess automatic sorting, washing at the right temperature, drying and maybe folding is what someone who washes their own clothes would wish for.

Talking to the appliance is probably not that high on their list.

The Jetsons future.

> the only laundry-related AI you can hope for, is a cloud connected smart speaker telling you it can't wash with unapproved third party detergent pods

This seems unnecessarily fatalist.

Laundry folding machines exist[1] and there were attempts to create a consumer friendly one, so far unsuccessful. Technology advancements could make that happen. At least that's what I'm hoping for.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laundry-folding_machine

Someone (probably from here) would develop a local inference model probably - or hopefully.