Samsung to debut Viv-based AI assistant alongside Galaxy S8
Samsung on Monday confirmed plans to include a new AI assistant with its upcoming Galaxy S8 smartphone, which should make use of the technology it acquired from Viv -- a firm founded by some of the people behind Apple's Siri.
Samsung's current top-of-the-line phone, the Galaxy S7 Edge.
Samsung didn't identify any specific features of the new assistant, except that third-party developers will be able to "attach and upload services," Reuters said. Siri gained support for third-party apps with September's introduction of iOS 10.
Viv's technology has been touted as better than Siri, for instance being able to mesh multiple services together without a person needing separate apps for each. If a person is ordering movie tickets, it can not only find showtimes but compare ticket prices, place or cancel orders, and suggest pre-show dinner locations.
In the short term Samsung's competition may not be Apple so much as Google, which despite making the Android OS many Samsung devices run on, recently launched self-branded Pixel phones with Google Assistant -- a more advanced AI than the one normally baked into Android phones. Users can, for example, ask contextual follow-up questions. "Who is Hillary Clinton?" can be followed up with "How old is she?" instead of having to specify Clinton's name again.
The Wall Street Journal recently suggested that AI will be so important to Samsung that the S8 could have a dedicated button for triggering its assistant. That might not be present on the phone's final design however, and the Journal indicated that the S8 might not premiere until April, two months after Samsung normally debuts its S-series flagships.
Samsung's current top-of-the-line phone, the Galaxy S7 Edge.
Samsung didn't identify any specific features of the new assistant, except that third-party developers will be able to "attach and upload services," Reuters said. Siri gained support for third-party apps with September's introduction of iOS 10.
Viv's technology has been touted as better than Siri, for instance being able to mesh multiple services together without a person needing separate apps for each. If a person is ordering movie tickets, it can not only find showtimes but compare ticket prices, place or cancel orders, and suggest pre-show dinner locations.
In the short term Samsung's competition may not be Apple so much as Google, which despite making the Android OS many Samsung devices run on, recently launched self-branded Pixel phones with Google Assistant -- a more advanced AI than the one normally baked into Android phones. Users can, for example, ask contextual follow-up questions. "Who is Hillary Clinton?" can be followed up with "How old is she?" instead of having to specify Clinton's name again.
The Wall Street Journal recently suggested that AI will be so important to Samsung that the S8 could have a dedicated button for triggering its assistant. That might not be present on the phone's final design however, and the Journal indicated that the S8 might not premiere until April, two months after Samsung normally debuts its S-series flagships.
Comments
Bingo.
And in the long term, the more fragmentation of Android, the better for Apple.
Samsung has been trying forever by making all their own Samsung specific versions of Android features (like S-Voice or S-Translate) and even opening their own app store. Then having "fake" developers post on sites like Stackoverflow to get them to code for Samsung only features in their Android apps. Adding Viv is just another attempt by Samsung to have their own version of a major Android feature (Assistant).
They can't get developers to code for them now, so why do they think they'll start now?
"And is that greater or less than the minimum safe distance for the Note 7?"
Sounds wrong. How can the voice assist order movie tix from Fandango if you don't have the Fandango app installed? Or from AMC directly if I don't have the app loaded with my Stubs #?
can not agree more, before you know every company out there will have their own AI assistant that no one will want to talk to.
It's worth pointing out that the rot set into Microsoft once monopolised the desktop market. The company became fat and lazy. When the iPhone landed they thought they would simply because they were Microsoft.
Ballmer still can't get over what happened; now he's on Bloomberg, insisting that the only reason he was beaten by Apple was because the iPhone was subsidised by the carriers.
http://www.recode.net/2016/11/7/13548032/steve-ballmer-apple-iphone-bloomberg
SIRI/VIV guys: "yeah, sounds cool"
Apple: "hey guys, slow down. You know, were fiddling around with sensitive personal data. And we need to scale back and stepwise add features back in when we know how to do it safely"
SIRI/VIV guys: "yuck. That totally turn us off. You mutilate our cool tech. We're out."
Samsung: "hey guys. Why don't you come and play with us? We don't care much about all this boring security - with us you can play without any limits. Ain't that cool?"
SIRI/VIV guys: *drool*.