Samsung acquires Viv developed by the original creators of Siri
- Fariha Khan
- October 7, 2016
- 518
“Viv”, the artificial intelligence assistant, has gained much attention recently. Developed by the original creators of Siri, (Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham) Viv has been recognized as a more useful and powerful personal assistant compared to Siri. According to the latest reports, now Samsung has acquired Viv. The company is reportedly having plans to implement it into its products. At the moment, Viv will work as an independent firm, providing serves to Samsung and its devices.
How much will Samsung be paying for Viv?
While it is not clear at the moment how much Samsung will pay for Viv, just for comparison purpose, Apple is believed to have paid up of $200 million for Siri when it attained the firm in 2010.
Is Viv more powerful than Siri?
Viv was actually revealed in the beginning of 2016. Before the unveiling, the developers expressed that Viv was much more proficient compared to Siri. They also said that they never aimed for Siri to become the “clever AI chatbot” that it proved to be.
Integration with third-party apps and services
What makes Viv really stands out is its integration with third-party apps and services. It is what Apple is bringing to Siri with iOS 10 though slowly. Siri included information from as many as 42 services when it was launched first. Apple, on the other hand, made it all simpler prior to adding it to the iPhone.
Google and Facebook were once interested in Viv
It is interesting to note that Google and Facebook both were interested in acquiring Viv, we saw no outcome of it all. But Samsung has taken a step forward which will certainly prove to be beneficial to the company.
Viv could have direct effect on a more than just Samsung’s mobile division.
Jacopo Lenzi, Samsung’s SVP Jacopo, explained during an interview, “This is an acquisition that is being done by the mobile team, but we clearly see the interest across our devices. From our perspective and from the client’s perspective, the interest and the power of this really comes from taking advantage of the Samsung scale overall, as well as the richness of the touch points we have with consumers.”
Samsung levels up with Viv acquisition
Samsung’s acquisition of Viv has given it an edge over other Android manufacturers. Particularly it is worth noting that yesterday Google announced its new Pixel smartphones with its new Google Assistant AI bot, which will be exclusive to the Pixel phones at the moment. Additionally, with this step the dependence of Samsung on Google will also lessen.