Samsung eyes Siri counterpart for Galaxy phones, home appliances

A Siri-like virtual assistant will soon come with every Samsung smartphone after the South Korean tech giant bought Viv Labs Inc., an artificial intelligence startup built by the same team that created Apple’s Siri.

Samsung Electronics announced Wednesday its takeover of Viv Labs Inc., a Silicon Valley company founded by Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham. Despite the takeover, the startup will operate independently of Samsung and will simply provide services and technical support to Samsung Mobile devices and appliances.

"Soon, we’ll all have a trusted assistant that is a regular part of our everyday lives. We deeply believe this to be true. This assistant will be as ubiquitous and important as the web browser or the mobile app," said Kittlaus, Viv co-founder and Chief Executive, in a statement.

Kittlaus and Cheyer developed Siri, which Apple bought in 2010 and introduced with Apple iPhone 4S in 2011. So far, Siri operates as Apple’s virtual assistant feature on iPhones, iPads, iPod Touch, Apple Watch and Macbooks, which run on iOS 10 or macOS Sierra.

Unlike Siri, the digital assistant Viv Labs is developing for Samsung touted as a more powerful version of Apple’s virtual assistant. Viv Labs has allowed third-party developers to contribute new functions, which makes the product capable of handling complex commands.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Viv Labs’ new virtual assistant will roll out on Samsung smartphones and devices next year. Samsung’s ultimate goal is to incorporate digital assistant to its product line including home appliances.

"Samsung is the market leader in smart devices across a wide range of use cases and industries.

"They ship 500 million devices a year. They also sell more smartphones and TVs than any other company in the world, not to mention a hundred million appliances, and their ambitious Virtual Reality product line. Their product mix naturally fits Viv’s 'simplify your interactions through conversation.'"

The deal between Samsung and Viv Labs was made for an undisclosed amount. With Viv Labs, Samsung Electronics hopes to catch up with Apple’s iPhone’s Siri and Google’s new artificially intelligent phone Google Pixel.