Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.’s Galaxy S24 smartphone is shown during a media preview event in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, January 15, 2024. Samsung, the world’s most prolific smartphone maker, is looking to artificial intelligence as the key to greater sales this year. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Cho Sung-jun | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Samsung may add generative artificial intelligence technology to its voice assistant Bixby, a company executive told CNBC, as the South Korean giant looks to enhance the appeal of its devices.
Bixby was launched in 2017 with the Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone. The software offers a variety of features, including instant translation or restaurant recommendations.
But voice assistants are typically less conversational, relying instead on users to ask questions and get answers.
After the emergence of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and its competitors, chatbots are now more advanced and capable of handling more complex queries. These new-age chatbots are an example of generative artificial intelligence, allowing users to pose queries and generate responses in the form of text, images, and now even videos.
Samsung’s Bixby is available across all of the company’s devices, from smartphones and smartwatches to home appliances. The company sees it as a key tool for users to control devices in their homes.
As of now, Bixby doesn’t have ChatGPT functionality.
Like many smartphone makers, Samsung is looking to infuse its devices with more advanced artificial intelligence capabilities. The company also launched new features of Galaxy AI and its latest S24 series of smartphones. This includes an option that allows users to circle something on the screen and search for it on Google without switching apps.
The tech giant hopes to use Bixby to enhance its artificial intelligence technology.
“So, Bixby has been Samsung’s key voice assistant, not only for mobile devices, but also for TVs and digital appliances that exist in the Samsung ecosystem. So, it has been the core voice assistant so far.” Won-joon Choi Samsung’s executive vice president of mobile business said in an interview with CNBC last month.
“With the emergence of generative AI and LLM (large language model) technology, I believe we have to redefine the role of Bixby so that Bixby can be equipped with generative AI and become smarter in the future,” Choi said. will “enable more natural conversations and develop an interface that supports Samsung products in our ecosystem.”
Choi didn’t give a timetable for when Bixby will get generative AI features, but said Samsung is “working hard” to deliver them.
Samsung’s focus on the technology comes as investors are closely watching what Apple has to offer in terms of generative artificial intelligence. Apple has announced that it will hold its annual developers conference WWDC in June, where the company is expected to discuss some of the artificial intelligence features in its products.