Whilst the Samsung Galaxy S8 won’t be making an appearance at MWC 2017 this month, more details are beginning to emerge about the revolutionary AI that is on board.
Reports have it that Samsung’s Bixby personal assistant will be able to chat to Galaxy S8 users in up to eight different languages from launch, and the eagle-eyed among you will have realised that is more than the Google Assistant currently offers. English, Korean and Chinese will all be on board from the start, as will up to five other languages (via SamMobile).
By way of comparison, Google Assistant is still only available in five languages (English, Hindi, German, Japanese and Portuguese), yet the company does state that more languages are “coming soon”.
Bixby has been a sure thing for some time and is expected to be based on technology from Viv Labs, a company that was acquired by Samsung last year. One exciting feature that is rumoured to be a part of Bixby’s arsenal is the ability for S8 users to scan objects using the device’s camera before being given information about what has been scanned.
Samsung’s focus on AI-powered software first began to seep out in its Q4 2017 earnings release and it’s part of their growth strategy for the smartphone sector. It isn’t only the smartphone sector that Bixby is targeting either.
In November 2016, Samsung Executive Vice President, Rhee Injong, told Reuters that the company will not only bring the Viv platform into the upcoming flagship but that it would ‘expand voice-assistant services to home appliances and wearable technology devices’. That opens up the strong possibility that we will see a new tranche of products from Samsung targeting the smart home market and Amazon Echo/Google Home could have some big competition.
With the Galaxy S8 expected to get its release within the next three months, it won’t be long until ‘Hey Alexa’ is joined by ‘Yo Bixby’ in the household lexicon of the future.
Related: MWC 2017
Will you be snapping up a Galaxy S8? Let us know in the comments.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
