Users of Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus were disappointed by Samsung’s Bixby virtual assistant due to its dedicated button. However, the tech company will replace the head of the Bixby department and might roll out the digital assistant’s new version next week.

According to The Investor, Chung Eui-Seok (head of service intelligence at Samsung’s South Korean headquarters) will replace Rhee In-jong (head of Bixby digital assistant). The service group of Chung is now in charge of developing the virtual assistant as well as other services related to Bixby.

Before Chung joined Samsung in 2011, he worked for Ericsson and is credited for being the software expert behind Samsung Pay as well as the software security Knox.

Since 2015, Chung has been the head of Samsung Research America’s solution lab and mobile platform.

Bixby’s development

Samsung might have removed Rhee as the head of Bixby’s development because of the digital assistant’s negative response from users as well as tech critics. Nonetheless, according to The Korea Herald, Samsung is denying that Chung replaced Rhee, claiming that Rhee is still part of the development of Bixby digital assistant.

The South Korean tech firm remains steadfast in its efforts in the artificial intelligence technology despite being regarded as being behind Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant. Samsung even launched an update that can disable and turn off the dedicated button of its digital assistant.

Samsung first made Bixby available in the company’s home country this year and it was later rolled out across the globe in August with Korean and English languages. However, the company had problems adding Bixby digital assistant’s English language support. The issue is believed to be the company’s language barriers and lack of necessary data between Samsung’s Korean and United States headquarters.

2017 Developer Conference

Nonetheless, Samsung is expected to officially reveal the Bixby 2.0 during the company’s San Francisco Developer Conference on October 18. The digital assistant’s update might feature integration with third-party services as well as other Samsung gadgets.

Phone Arena reported that Bixby 2.0 might have input from Viv.

Viv is a global artificial intelligence platform comprised of former Apple employees who generated Siri AI assistant which was purchased by Samsung last year. The release of Bixby 2.0 could finally make the AI virtual assistant more useful to the users of Galaxy S8, S8 Plus and the newly launched Galaxy Note 8.
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