It turns out that Bixby really is the future that Samsung wants. The South Korean tech giant is continuing its overarching goal of embedding the virtual assistant into all of its products by 2020, announcing this week that the personalized service will soon be added to all of Samsung’s robot cleaners and ovens. The company’s artificial intelligence will be included in all of its cleaners and ovens by the end of this year, in fact.
HS Kim, president and CEO of Samsung’s Consumer Electronics division, said at a press event in Seoul that the A.I. assistant will continue to evolve into an intelligent, personalized service over time. The technology is an enormous investment for Samsung, which has brought together expertise in A.I. and voice recognition, the company’s Samsung Connect connectivity platform, and a cloud stack.
Bixby, whether consumers like it or not, is already available in all of Samsung’s smartphones as well as smart consumer electronics products like televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners and washing machines.
Samsung also announced updates to Bixby services in its family hub. Consumers are able to use Bixby’s voice controls to issue a wide variety of orders, such as turning on air conditioners simply by saying, “It’s hot out today.” The technology platform also supports a number of passive smart functions: Refrigerators can make stock lists and manage expiration dates, while washing machines can recommend the best washing cycle based on the types of clothes being washed.
One key to the entire Samsung ecosystem of connected products is the platform’s advanced voice controls. Bixby can already recognize individual voices of family members to track preferences and schedules. Its features can be activated simultaneously by a single voice command, as many Bixby users have discovered to their dismay. However, simply issuing the command “Good night” will switch off televisions and put air conditioners into sleep mode.
Samsung also announced this week that its next flagship smartphone will feature an even more advanced A.I. assistant, dubbed Bixby 2.0. Gray Lee, head of the A.I. Center under Samsung Research, told the Korea Herald that the platform will be upgraded with enhanced language processes, improved noise resistance, and quicker response times.
Samsung reportedly plans to unveil the Galaxy Note 9 in August. No word yet on when Bixby 2.0 will come to Samsung’s smart kitchen and cleaning products but it’s likely to be soon. Samsung plans to connect a total of 14 million products with Bixby this year and aims to connect them all by 2020.
