Samsung AI upgrade for voice assistant Bixby this year

According to reports, a Samsung Electronics executive has confirmed that AI-powered voice assistant Bixby will launch later this year.

TM Roh, head of Samsung’s mobile division, told CNBC that the company will launch an improved version of its voice assistant Bixby this year, based on its own artificial intelligence models.

Bixby’s AI upgrade was first announced in April, but no timeframe for the upgrade was given.

Previously, Samsung unveiled its portfolio of S24 smartphones in January and announced at the time that the handsets would feature Google’s generative AI technology, which the company called “Galaxy AI.”

Bixby AI

At the Galaxy Unpacked event in Paris this week, Samsung unveiled improvements to the “Galaxy AI” in its devices, including an expansion of its wearable portfolio.

Bixby was introduced in 2017 with Samsung’s Galaxy S8 smartphone and competes with Apple’s Siri.

The Samsung voice assistant offered numerous functions, including live translations and restaurant recommendations.

The Bixby Vision tool also allows a person to use the phone camera to scan anything in front of them, and Bixby will then offer information about it.

But now it has been confirmed that the proven voice assistant Bixby will be launched with AI functions this year.

TM Roh told CNBC that the company will unveil a further improved Bixby this year that uses the South Korean tech giant’s own Large Language Model (LLM).

“We will further develop Bixby by applying Gen-AI technology,” Roh reportedly said in Korean through a translator.

Samsung will maintain its strategy of allowing multiple voice assistants on its devices, Roh said. For example, Google’s own AI assistant is available on Samsung’s latest devices.

Apple’s move

Roh’s confirmation of the Bixby upgrade comes after Apple announced in June that its assistant Siri will receive an AI upgrade thanks to Apple’s partnership with ChatGPT owner OpenAI.

Some will consider the upgrade of Samsung and Apple’s voice assistants with AI features to be long overdue.

Siri, Bixby, and even Amazon’s Alexa (which is rumored to be getting an AI upgrade as well) are generally considered less conversational and rely on users to ask questions and get answers.

In February 2023, Samsung updated Bixby with improved voice recognition as well as Bixby Custom Voice Creator, which allows users to record different phrases that Bixby analyzes and creates an AI-generated copy of their voice and tone.

Despite all this, AI chatbots have surpassed personal voice assistants in terms of functionality in recent years, are more advanced and can handle much more complex requests.