Samsung confirms the Galaxy S8 will have a digital assistant

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When Samsung announced the acquisition of Viv Labs, a startup founded by the creators of Siri, a few weeks ago we started hearing rumors that the company will use Viv Labs' technology to build an artificial intelligence digital assistant for the Galaxy S8. We later came to know that it might be called Bixby. Prior to the company's confirmation, we actually sent out a tweet confirming that version 1.0 of Bixby will indeed be present on the Galaxy S8 a.k.a Project Dream. Without going into the specifics, Samsung has confirmed that it's next flagship smartphone is going to feature a digital assistant.

Samsung will start by integrating the startup's artificial intelligence platform called Viv into its Galaxy smartphone before expanding it to products like wearable devices and home appliances. It's going to use this platform to offer a host of functionality and different services to users but Samsung is yet to confirm what type of services will be offered through its digital assistant.

The company has said that users will be able to seamlessly access third-party services through the assistant. “Developers can attach and upload services to our agent,” said Samsung Executive Vice President Rhee Injong, adding that “Even if Samsung doesn't do anything on its own, the more services that get attached the smarter this agent will get, learn more new services and provide them to end-users with ease.”

Samsung is now firmly in the digital assistant race where companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon have already achieved a great deal. It's starting out quite slow which is why the company has said that it's looking to make further acquisitions in order to bolster its position in the areas of artificial intelligence and other related software.

Samsung Bixby V1.0 (Project Dream = S8).
— SamMobile – Samsung news! (@SamMobiles) November 3, 2016

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Adnan Farooqui - Executive Editor

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First Samsung device: SGH-E900

Adnan Farooqui is a long-term writer at SamMobile. Based in Pakistan, his interests include technology, finance, Swiss watches and Formula 1. His tendency to write long posts betrays his inclination to being a man of few words.