It’s not a surprise that many companies are interested in AI, Apple is slowly improving Siri bringing third-party app support with iOS 10, Google’s newly announced Pixel smartphones feature a new “Assistant”, and it looks like Samsung wants to offer its users something similar too. The company recently purchased Viv Labs, the original creators of Siri who are currently working on Viv, a technology that is touted as a more “extensible, powerful version of Siri”.
This was reported by TechCrunch and CNBC, and has been confirmed by Samsung’s Medium post. The amount Samsung paid for the acquisition has not been disclosed, but for comparison’s sake, it is believed that Apple paid more than US$200 million for Siri back in 2010. For now, Viv will operate as an independent company, and will provide services to Samsung and its platforms.
Viv Labs is founded by Adam Cheyer, Dag Kittlaus and Chris Brigham. The trio gradually left Apple after the Cupertino company acquired Siri, and have been working on Viv since. Viv was officially unveiled earlier this year.
So what will Samsung do with its new acquisition? Apply the technology to its future products of course, “with Viv, Samsung will be able to unlock and offer new service experiences for its customers, including one that simplifies user interfaces, understands the context of the user and offers the user the most appropriate and convenient suggestions and recommendations.”
Check out TechCrunch to find out more.
(Source: TechCrunch, The Verge, 9to5Mac)
