Samsung has announced its forthcoming Galaxy Note 9 will feature a smarter, upgraded version of its digital voice assistant – ‘Bixby 2.0’. The news comes as Samsung looks to deploy Bixby on 14 million devices this year, with the intention to connect all new devices by 2020.
According to The Korea Herald, the Galaxy Note 9 will launch around August this year. Bixby 2.0 will reportedly feature improved noise resistance, quicker response times and ‘enhanced’ natural language processes.
Head of Samsung Research’s AI Centre, Gray G. Lee, affirms Bixby will remain central to Samsung’s artificial intelligence platform.
“Samsung’s AI vision has five directions: user centric, always learning, always there, always helpful and always safe,” Lee adds.
In a bid to improve artificial intelligence capabilities, Samsung will reportedly increase its AI operational team to 1,000, coupled with the creation of several global AI centres.
The news comes as Samsung further expand its smart home ecosystem, with Bixby remaining the central voice assistant – e.g. amongst Family Hub fridges, smart TVs and mobile phones.
For many mobile users, Bixby remains an underused feature, lagging behind Google Assistant in AI functionality. It’ll be interesting to see how Samsung remedies this over time.
