Samsung acquires next-generation AI assistant Viv

Samsung has announced it is to acquire Viv Labs in a bid to integrate AI into its devices in the future.

Touted as an open artificial intelligence (AI) platform that gives access to third-party developers, Viv should work on a variety of devices, and its makers aimed for it to be an even more efficient version of Siri, Cortana and other AIs.

The AI technology was designed to address a wider variety of more complicated requests, even those it has not been specifically programmed for.

Thanks to what its creators call a "dynamic program generation', Viv should be able to resource information from a broader range of apps and services, creating its own code to complete new tasks. The AI could hence help its users in a wider variety of ways.

This is something that its makers believe to be lacking in Siri and other AIs.

Viv's software was developed by some of the brains behind Siri, such as Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham. These three engineers left Apple and co-founded Viv in 2012, two years after Siri's acquisition.

"We see a future that is decidedly beyond appswhere you can get what you need quickly and easily no matter where you are, or what device you are near," said Viv co-founder and CEO, Dag Kittlaus. "Samsung offers us a unique opportunity to deliver a single conversational interface to the world's apps and services across a diverse rIn the future, Samsung will benefit from Viv's services, but the AI company will continue to operate independently.

Samsung will benefit from Viv's services, but the AI company will continue to operate independently.

The news of Samsung's AI platform acquisition comes shorty after Google presented its new smartphone Pixel, as well as its living room AI' Google Home, both of which are highly reliant on the company's virtual assistant.

Samsung appears to be keeping up with its electronic rivals by acquiring what could be one of the most powerful AIs around.

Although Viv is not available to Samsung users yet, the Korean company now has a serious card to play in the ongoing race for the best AI development.