Samsung’s voice-activated AI, Bixby was rolled out in the first half of 2017. According to a report by the Korean Herald, The South Korean OEM is planning to release the next edition of Bixby. Korean Herald claims that during the developer conference scheduled to be on October 18 in San Francisco, Samsung may preview Bixby 2.0 to the public. The report also reveals that a new person is leading the AI project. This change is apparently due to the lukewarm response the AI has received so far.
The Korean Herald claims that Chung Eui-suk is now heading the Bixby development department.
He also looks after Samsung’s service intelligence division. In his previous roles, Chung mostly looked after the research. If the claims are true, he will replace Rhee In-jong as the head of the Bixby development department.
What will Bixby 2.0 bring to the table?
A Droid Life report claims that Bixby 2.0 will bring deeper third-party app integration. While one can already use the AI to play a song on Google Play Music or hail an Uber ride, it would be interesting to see how many more functionalities are integrated. It is also speculated that Samsung will not restrict the voice assistant’s usage to smartphones and could extend the AI to other devices as well. Interestingly, Bixby is already integrated into Samsung's Gear IconX wireless earbuds.
However, the voice-activated virtual assistant is yet to make its debut on Samsung wearables or the rumored smart speaker.
The AI needs a boost: can Bixby 2.0 deliver?
For the unfamiliar, Bixby was rolled out globally in June and received a lukewarm response from users. Tech pundits averred that Bixby was more like the beta version of a service rather than the final product.
This observation was based on the fact that the system often misunderstood the owner’s commands. Moreover, the English version of personal assistant was released to the market after a delay of two months, which also led to bad press.
Samsung Mobile’s head Koh Dong-jin admitted to the press that there was scope for improvement in the AI’s system.
In a local press meet during the launch of Galaxy Note 8, Koh stated that the missing features of Bixby would be packed into the next version. He also added that Samsung would allow external developers to contribute to the development of Bixby 2.0. The company did not take the aid of third-party developers for the original version of the AI. The move to involve external developers may help give the AI the much-needed boost.
