It’s no secret that Samsung is spend a lot of resources to improve the Bixby AI assistant, and it appears that the company is preparing to launch an advanced version known as Bixby 2.0 with its next flagship smartphone.
According to Gray G. Lee, head of the AI Center under Samsung Research, the Bixby 2.0 will have enhanced natural language processing, improved noise resistance, and have a faster response. Whether this warrants an entire new version number is still unknown, but the improvements at least sound like a significant step for the company.
Lee has also said that Samsung is planning to increase its AI workforce to 1,000 employees. This will include both setting up new AI centres across the world and mergers with existing companies. The original report doesn’t make it clear if this is being done in time for the launch of Bixby 2.0.
Naturally, Bixby 2.0 is expected to arrive with the Galaxy Note 9; slated for a release in August. There’s not many details available at the moment about this particular device; aside from the usual slew of rumours.
Bixby’s original launch was marred by a series of missteps and learning opportunities for Samsung. The AI assistant missed the launch of the Galaxy Note 8 by several weeks, leaving the flagship smartphone without its flagship feature.
Even now, Bixby lags behind its competition in the Google Assistant; which has been progressing with leaps and bounds.
We don’t necessarily expect Bixby 2.0 to directly compete with the more established AIs. Samsung is still much too new to the game to be able to mount a proper challenge. However, it will be interesting to see how much the company is capable of improving its product over the last year. Samsung has no lack of resources in this respect, and should make at least make Bixby 2.0 interesting.
[Source: Korea Herald]
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