Samsung’s Bixby, the AI-powered voice assistant that will debut on Galaxy S8 will be powered by S Voice technology. This information contradicts the earlier speculation that Bixby will be based on Viv Lab’s technology.
As Samsung acquired Viv Labs last year, industry analysts predicted that the Korean tech giant will now work on bringing its own AI assistant based on tech provided by Viv Labs. Back in November this aspect was further confirmed by Injong Rhee, chief technology officer of Samsung’s mobile division that Galaxy S8 AI will be developed on technology provided by Viv Labs and it will be quite different from what we have in the market. .
The new information come to us by Wall Street Journal which claims that Samsung’s engineers have worked on upgrading S Voice and now have added different new features. S Voice is the personal assistant that is a part of Samsung’s devices but it is quite basic and cannot compete with the likes of Google Assistant or Siri.
Well this information does not at all instill our confidence in Bixby. With increased competition and different brands working on bringing AI assistant on board their smartphones, a basic AI-assistant does not bode well for Samsung. At a time when companies are focusing on bringing smart AI assistants which will learn and customize elements as they interact with the user, if Samsung just bring’s in an AI that just ‘answers voiced questions from users’, then they are not bringing anything new to the plate.
To edge ahead of competition Samsung’s Bixby needs to be exceptional, as nothing else will do. We will get to know more about Bixby and which tech it is based on in the coming days. Do share your thoughts on this development? Do you think that upgrading the S Voice was a wise move on Samsung’s part when they had access to tech provided by Viv Labs?
