Samsung Electronics Co. Galaxy S24 smartphones throughout a media preview occasion in Seoul, South Korea, on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. Samsung, the world’s most prolific smartphone maker, is leaning into synthetic intelligence as the important thing to unlocking larger gross sales this yr. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg through Getty Photographs
SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Photographs
Samsung may add generative synthetic intelligence expertise to its voice assistant Bixby, a high govt on the firm informed CNBC, because the South Korean big appears to be like to boost the enchantment of its units.
Bixby launched in 2017 with Samsung’s Galaxy S8 smartphone. The software program provided quite a few features, together with dwell translations or restaurant suggestions.
However voice assistants have usually been much less conversational and have relied on customers asking questions and getting solutions.
Chatbots are actually extra superior and capable of deal with way more complicated queries, after the emergence of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and its rivals. These new-age chatbots are an instance of generative AI, which permits customers to immediate with a question and can generate a response within the type of textual content, an image, and now even video.
Samsung’s Bixby is throughout the corporate’s units, from smartphones and smartwatches to its home equipment. The agency sees it as a key instrument for customers to regulate their units of their dwelling.
Up to now, Bixby has not had the capabilities of ChatGPT.
Like many smartphone makers, Samsung is seeking to infuse its units with extra superior AI options. The corporate additionally launched new options with Galaxy AI, together with its newest S24 collection of smartphones. This consists of an choice that lets customers circle one thing on their screens and seek for it on Google, with out having to change apps.
The tech big is seeking to amp up its AI with Bixby.
“So Bixby has been a key voice assistants voice assistant for Samsung not only for the cell units, but in addition for TVs and digital home equipment that exist in Samsung’s ecosystem. So it has been the core voice assistant assistant to this point,” Gained-joon Choi, govt vp at Samsung’s cell enterprise, informed CNBC in an interview final month.
“With the emergence of generative AI and LLM (massive language mannequin) expertise, I imagine that we now have to redefine the position of the Bixby, in order that Bixby might be outfitted with generative AI and turn into extra smarter sooner or later,” Choi mentioned, including this may “allow a extra pure dialog and to work out an interface that helps the Samsung merchandise in our ecosystem.”
Choi didn’t give a timeline when Bixby might get generative AI options, however mentioned that Samsung is “working so exhausting” to ship them.
Samsung’s give attention to the expertise comes at a time when traders are scrutinizing what Apple will ship relating to generative AI. Apple introduced it will maintain its annual builders convention, WWDC, in June, when the corporate is basically anticipated to speak up some AI options throughout its merchandise.
