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Samsung acquires Viv, an AI platform from the makers of Siri
Just a day after Google revealed its premium Pixel phone and Google Home featuring Assistant AI baked in, Samsung is making a splash by buying up some AI power of its own. Viv Labs was founded by some of the same people behind Apple's Siri technology, who have referred to their new platform as an assistant that's capable of anything. Co-founder and CEO Dag Kittlaus writes in a blog post that "Samsung will drastically accelerate our vision." Samsung says the team will continue to operate independently, but it clearly has an eye towards integrating natural language understanding into its phones, TVs, appliances, VR and everything else.
Siri co-creator is working on a virtual assistant capable of anything
There's no question that Apple's virtual assistant comes in handy when you need information quickly. And now, one of Siri's creators is working on a more advanced form of AI that goes far beyond the current iPhone option. Viv Labs says its personal assistant will possess a limitless tool set because the software can teach itself. This means that in addition to the regular ol' search, the artificial intelligence will also be able to perform tasks like booking reservations based on openings in your schedule and more. "Siri is chapter one of a much longer, bigger story," Dag Kittlaus, Viv's co-founder who also worked on Apple's assistant, tells Wired. Bypassing the need for coders (and constraints), Viv generates its own program to answer queries and complete tasks in seconds. Once the system is "trained" to understand the vocabulary of a subject, the company aims to sort through loads of data to not only lend a hand, but anticipate what we'll need next. [Photo credit: Ian Waldie/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
