As competition in the technology increases, tech giants are looking for ways to improve their services. Samsung is not exception, especially now that it has agreed to acquire Viv, and AI and assistant system created by former employees of Apple.
Viv is an artificial intelligence platform that enables developers to create an intelligent, conversational interface to anything. This is created by Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham who created Siri.
"Unlike other existing AI-based services, Viv has a sophisticated natural language understanding, machine learning capabilities and strategic partnerships that will enrich a broader service ecosystem," said Injong Rhee, CTO of the Mobile Communications business at Samsung Electronics in the official statement from Samsung.
"Viv was built with both consumers and developers in mind. This dual focus is also what attracted us to Viv as an ideal candidate to integrate with Samsung home appliances, wearables and more, as the paradigm of how we interact with technology shifts to intelligent interfaces and voice control," he added.
In a report from The Wall Street Journal, the Samsung acquired Viv to incorporate Viv's features on its phones to make it more attractive to the eyes of the buying public.
One thing that makes Viv Labs different is the fact that it allows third-paryt developers to create and contribute new functions and features to it.
Earlier this year, Viv founders said, in a conference at TechCruch, that Viv is the missing ingredient to personal assistant to a completely different level.
In agreeing with the acquisition, "There isn't another company in the world...with the scale and scope of what Samsung does," Mr. Kittlaus said.
It could be remembered that Facebook and Google have made offers to buy, according to The Washington Post.
With the acquisition, Samsung is set to introduce Viv into its smartphones starting in the second half of 2017. Injong Rhee, chief technology officer at Samsung's mobile division said that Samsung is contemplating on extending Viv's capacity to other Samsung devices, including home appliances, ultimately making Viv a part of its entire lineup of products.
However, despite its acquisition by Samsung, Viv will continue to be an independent company.
