South Korean conglomerate Samsung have revealed that its latest flagship device the Galaxy S8 will contain its new AI-powered virtual assistant ‘Bixby’ – which is an indicative message of its intent to challenge its rivals which include Apple and Amazon. In a statement issued by Samsung’s EVP and head of R&D, InJong Rhee out months of speculation to bed by confirming that the Galaxy S8 will be equipped with a new digital voice assistant ‘Bixby’. Analysts have claimed that its shows the organization are placing a significant emphasis on AI. (Artificial Intelligence)
It has been leaked that the S8 will have a button dedicated to ‘Bixby’ which will be situated on the side of the device and it will be compatible with a set of preinstalled applications. The portfolio of apps will then be expanded over time, with plans to open up the feature to third party developers. The Samsung Galaxy S8 is expected to be officially launched on March 29th. Samsung has also insisted that their AI voice assistant will be different to those already commercially available in the market – Rhee stated that the ‘Bixby’ offers a deeper experience thanks to proficiency in three areas which are context awareness, completeness and cognitive tolerance.
Samsung elaborated on the three areas outlined, in relation to ‘completeness’ the application can support every task it is performing which is in contrast to rival assistants which only support a limited part of the experience. When it comes to ‘context awareness’ Bixby is able to understand the current context and state of the application and can subsequently enable users to continue the current work in progress on a continuous bases. Finally, the AI voice assistant will be ‘smart enough’ to be able to understand commands and will be able to execute those demands to the best of its knowledge the statement from Samsung reads.
Samsung EVP concluded by saying: “Starting with our smartphones, Bixby will be gradually applied to all our appliances. In the future you would be able to control your air conditioner or TV through Bixby -as the Bixby ecosystem grows, we believe Bixby will evolve from a smartphone interface to an interface for your life.”
