Samsung introduces new virtual assistant Bixby

Samsung has launched Bixby, the virtual assistant for the new Galaxy S8 that is set to rival Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa.

InJong Rhee, Executive Vice President, Head of R&D, Software and Services posted a statement to the company website stating: “Bixby will be a new intelligent interface on our devices and fundamentally different from other voice agents or assistants in the market.”

Samsung has taken a different approach to introducing an AI assistant, where instead of asking questions which users do with Siri and Alexa, Bixby will work to support completion of tasks and understand and execute commands with incomplete context or information.

“Instead of humans learning how the machine interacts with the world (a reflection of the abilities of designers), it is the machine that needs to learn and adapt to us”, Rhee wrote. “The interface must be natural and intuitive enough to flatten the learning curve regardless of the number of functions being added. With this new approach, Samsung has employed artificial intelligence, reinforcing deep learning concepts to the core of our user interface designs. Bixby is the ongoing result of this effort.

“Users will be able to call upon Bixby at any time and it will understand the current context and state of the application and will allow users to carry out the current work-in-progress continuously.”

The new Samsung Galaxy S8 is set to launch on March 29th and will showcase the new voice-driven digital assistant Bixby as a feature.

“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. Since Bixby will be implemented in the cloud, as long as a device has an internet connection and simple circuitry to receive voice inputs, it will be able to connect with Bixby. As the Bixby ecosystem grows, we believe Bixby will evolve from a smartphone interface to an interface for your life”, Rhee adds.

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