Samsung says Bixby’s still not dead

Bixby’s not lifeless but, apparently. A Samsung government tells CNBC that the corporate is “working so arduous” to equip its voice assistant with AI options, suggesting that the corporate sees the likes of Gemini as competitors — not a alternative.

That’s good to know, as a result of a few of us have been beginning to surprise. Earlier this 12 months as Samsung introduced a boatload of recent generative AI options for its flagship telephones, its voice assistant was scarcely talked about. Samsung and Google additionally made a giant deal concerning the Galaxy S24 telephones utilizing Gemini Nano — Google’s on-device AI mannequin. It wouldn’t have been a stretch to see Samsung change Bixby with Google’s Gemini-powered assistant, however apparently, that’s not the plan.

Samsung’s Gained-joon Choi, government vice chairman of cellular, stated to CNBC, “I imagine that now we have to redefine the function of the Bixby, in order that Bixby could possibly be geared up with generative AI,” including that it might must be “smarter” and in a position to converse extra naturally. Because it stands, Samsung isn’t the one tech firm scrambling to include AI into its voice assistant — Apple is anticipated to announce an AI-ified Siri at this 12 months’s WWDC.

Within the meantime, the Galaxy S24’s AI options made their technique to final 12 months’s telephones by the use of a One UI 6.1 replace. Galaxy AI, as the entire package deal is named, is free for now. If Samsung does plan to cost for its AI options sooner or later, it’ll have to supply much more than what it’s able to now. No matter that imaginative and prescient appears like, Bixby seems to be a part of it.