Galaxy AI is undoubtedly the biggest selling point of Samsung's new Galaxy S24 series. This suite of artificial intelligence-powered features relies on Google's AI models as well as ones trained by Samsung. However, since Google's services are banned in China, Samsung had to look for alternatives.
No surprise, then, that the company had to go with a different AI model that could perform the special task of powering Galaxy AI features in China. Samsung turned to Baidu, often regarded as China's homegrown version of Google, for assistance.
Samsung picks local AI model for Galaxy AI in China
Galaxy AI offers similar functionality to users in China that it does elsewhere. This includes the ability to live translate phone calls, summarize notes and webpages, transcription of voice notes, and more. Many of these features rely on Google's AI foundational models elsewhere, but since Google's services don't work in China, Samsung went with Baidu's Ernie AI.
Ernie AI is Baidu's answer to all of the AI advancements taking place in the west. The Chinese company claims that the recently unveiled Ernie 4.0 is the most powerful version of the Ernie foundational model yet. It also claims that Ernie's capabilities are as advanced as ChatGPT-4.
Samsung's had a tough time of it in China over the past few years. It's not even among the top 5 smartphone vendors in China, arguably one of the world's most lucrative smartphone markets. Apple reigns supreme there, followed by local brands Honor, Vivo, Huawei, and Oppo. Despite its very low market share in China, Samsung continues to launch its new products in the country, hoping that it would be able to regain some of that lost market share.
