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| Yi Ji-soo, Samsung Electronics' vice president of AI strategy speaks during a press conference at the Grand Hyatt New York hotel, Thursday. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics |
By Baek Byung-yeul
NEW YORK -- As the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) technology has increased, top IT firms worldwide have been scrambling to beef up their own AI platforms.
Samsung Electronics has also come up with an upgraded version of its AI assistant, Bixby. Dubbed "New Bixby," the Korean tech giant said the AI assistant will be available on its latest high-end smartphone, Galaxy Note 9.
"The ultimate purpose of the new Bixby is to help you get things done," Yi Ji-soo, vice president of AI Strategy Group at Samsung's IT & Mobile Communication division, told reporters at the Grand Hyatt New York hotel Thursday.
During the Galaxy Note 9 launch event at Barclays Center the same day, Yi demonstrated what users can do with the updated Bixby assistant.
At the event, Yi showed he can book a seat for a concert taking place in Brooklyn over Labor Day weekend through voice commands. The vice president also called for Uber rides with Bixby.
Yi gave more details about the new Bixby during a meeting with Korean reporters after the Note 9 launch event.
"Samsung upgraded the new Bixby in terms of three points. In the first, we wanted the AI assistant to understand the context of what users are talking about. Second, we wanted Bixby to recommend things based on users' individual preferences and Bixby should be more convenient to use as well," Yi said.
Samsung first introduced Bixby in May of last year. At first, it only supported the Korean language but soon began supporting English starting last July. It expanded its service area to around 200 countries since Aug., and started to support Chinese starting in Nov. The company said Bixby has about 16.5 million of monthly active users.
"The new Bixby better understands what its users say. For instance, if I ask about the weather conditions of the Korean city of Suwon, it shows the current weather of the city. And if I ask about tomorrow then it comes with tomorrow's weather of Suwon because it understands the meaning behind the word tomorrow," Yi said.
Yi said the new Bixby can also build conversation with its users.
"If I ask about fine dining near Gangnam Station, it automatically brings up a list of famous restaurants in the area. Even if I ask about good restaurants right after asking about the weather, it still understand what I am asking. And if I ask it to find me Japanese restaurants, then Bixby comes up with famous Japanese restaurants near the station," Yi said. "It looks easy, but it is not. This could be possible as Bixby understand the context of the users' voice commands."
Yi said users will be able to make payments through Bixby. "Using Bixby, users can find the services they want to use and make reservations or payments."
After the Galaxy Note 9, the company said more Samsung devices, not only smartphones but also other IoT devices, will be able to have Bixby assistant. Furthermore, Samsung aims to make Bixby as a globally accepted platform.
To be able to reach the goal, Samsung has provided a software development kit of the new Bixby to third-party developers.
As Yi demonstrated, Bixby users can buy a concert ticket or call for Uber rides as the AI assistant is connected with third-party apps.
"Currently we are cooperating with about 40 third-party apps in the world," Yi said adding the number of third parties will be increased.
Yi said Samsung will provide details about ecosystem during the upcoming Samsung Developer Conference scheduled to be held in San Francisco in Nov.
