Samsung's Bixby 2.0 AI Assistant Will Debut Alongside Galaxy Note 9

Digital assistants have become a standard feature of practically every smartphone around these days, and are such a big deal that Samsung created its own version in Bixby. Looking ahead, Samsung is planning to roll out an upgraded version of its artificial intelligence platform, Bixby 2.0, and it will reportedly arrive alongside the Galaxy Note 9 sometime in the second half of this year (presumably in the fall).

Samsung talked about Bixby 2.0 during a recent press conference that was focused on its vision for AI. The plan for Bixby 2.0 is to inject more natural language processes, along with improved resistance capability and quicker response time. As to how all that plays out remains to be seen, but we're most interested in Samsung's natural language efforts, especially after witnessing Google's Duplex demo.

In case you missed it, Google demoed Duplex during its Google I/O event, in which the AI assistant phoned up a hair salon and booked an appointment for a client. It then called a restaurant and attempted to make a reservation. In both cases, the person on the other end of the line had no idea they were talking to an advanced chatbot. It was both impressive and a little creepy, and gave us a glimpse of where AI is headed.

Bixby 2.0 probably won't be that advanced, but it does sound like it will take some sort of step in that direction. Make no mistake, Samsung is very much invested in AI—the company plans to increase its AI workforce to up to 1,000 employees, and wants to create AI centers in different parts of the world.

"Samsung's AI vision has five directions: user centric, always learning, always there, always helpful, and always safe," said Gray G. Lee, head of the AI Center at Samung Resarch.

As for the Galaxy Note 9, it made an appearance on Geekbench earlier this month. Assuming the entry is legitimate, the Galaxy Note 9 will arrive with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC and 6GB of RAM. Not much else has been leaked, however, so we'll have to wait for an official unveiling. That is expected to happen in August.