Samsung Wants Bixby To Smarten Up In A Big Way With Generative AI
Last month, Samsung announced that Galaxy AI would be integrated with its voice assistant, Bixby, as part of the company’s initiative to bring a “new era of mobile experiences.” The announcement included new AI enabled features being added to Bixby, such as being able to conveniently use Galaxy AI features like Call Assist, Browsing Assist, and Interpreter. Now, Samsung looks to bridle the power of generative AI and make Bixby even smarter.
“So Bixby has been a key voice assistants voice assistant for Samsun not just for the mobile devices, but also for TVs and digital appliances that exist in Samsung’s ecosystem. So it has been the core voice assistant so far,” explained Executive Vice President at Samsung’s mobile business, Won-joon Choi. “With the emergence of generative AI and LLM (large language model) technology, I believe that we have to redefine the role of Bixby, so that Bixby could be equipped with generative AI and become smarter in the future.”
Bixby has been evolving ever since its inception in 2017, when it appeared along with the Galaxy S8. At that time, the voice assistant was able to perform functions such as changing phone settings. But with AI being infused into more and more aspects of smart devices, companies like Samsung are having to find new and unique ways to get ahead of the competition in order to keep features like Bixby relevant among its user base.
While Samsung has not provided any details about when or how it plans on integrating generative AI into Bixby, Choi made it clear the company is “working so hard” to get it done. Some in the industry think Samsung is trying to get ahead of Apple’s WWDC 2024 event with announcements like this one, especially with all the flack Apple has been taking in regard to AI, or lack thereof.
