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Samsung acquires Viv, a next-gen AI assistant built by creators of Apple’s Siri

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101–110 of 122 posts

Re: Samsung acquires Viv, a next-gen AI assistant built by creators of Apple’s Siri

#101

Does anyone else have the feeling that the ecosystem lock-in inherent in all of these large primarily hardware-focused companies isn't necessarily the whole future? I can imagine things like airport kiosks, coffee machines, subway terminals, hotel front desks, and other everyday objects or conglomerations of objects that aren't part of the consumer market most of these companies target also having such an interface,…

The large vendors are using phone revenue to fund fundamental conversational AI research. Eventually it'll get commiditized. Either as discoverable microservices that your favorite conversational AI finds, or as tiny ones for each device. I'm not sure which one is really worse.

Re: Samsung acquires Viv, a next-gen AI assistant built by creators of Apple’s Siri

#102
post #14

This is going to be great, The worlds top firms are now in direct competition with each other. Microsoft(Cortana), Amazon(Echo), Apple(Siri), Google(Assistant/Now) and now Samsung with Viv. The possibilites are just endless, the space race netted us a lot of innovation and this should do the same. Competition leads to Innovation

Competition is for losers. 10 years ago the battle was microsoft vs yahoo and whoever...and it turned out the ones to pay attention to were fb and twtr...etc. The big innovation, the one to dominate headlines in 10 years, is likely unknown, run by a few guys on a shoestring and barely on the radar right now.

MS, Apple, and Google are very much still around.

Twitter and Yahoo are up for sale.

FB is the only innovator on your list that could be classed as a newcomer. And it's been around for more than a decade.

I doubt we'll see the big innovation from a garage now, because the cost of entry has become too high for shoestring operators to succeed.

ML training needs fast, expensive hardware. You can experiment with it on a 1080 graphics card, but for industrial applications you need a lot more speed and power.

Re: Samsung acquires Viv, a next-gen AI assistant built by creators of Apple’s Siri

#103

Unfortunately I think it's pretty obvious why they were acquired, so 99% skeptical of their future. They were probably acquired because: 1. They realized just owning the software platform is very limiting (For example they can't compete with Apple no matter how good they are. Just look at Google maps. Thousand times better than the default Apple maps but will never be #1 map app on iOS because people always choose th…

> Samsung wants to fight with Google/Apple/Amazon/MS and needed a weapon

More likely, Samsung doesn't have the internal chops to build a Cortana/GNow/Siri but has a corporate mandate to have a Samsung version of anything Google does on Android. If you have ever used a Samsung phone, you'll see there's both a bundled (by contract) Google suite of apps and a matching Samsung suite of apps.

I don't think this is a sign of them moving to Tizen or picking a bigger fight with Google or Apple, but a continuation of what they've been doing for several years and something of a non-issue and non-news. I imaigne, like most Samsung apps, it'll be ignored for the superior Google equivalent.

Personally, I'd like to see them leave Android for Tizen. We really need more competition in the mobile space. Shame Samsung isn't serious about leaving Android. The few times I've helped someone with a Samsung phone have been frustrating and confusing. There's just too much Samsung junk on there fighting for your attention.

Re: Samsung acquires Viv, a next-gen AI assistant built by creators of Apple’s Siri

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry but thats not good enough. On Android I can make a new email client, and overnight it can become the default email client for everyone that installs it. On iOS I would need to convince most large apps to allow me as an option before it would work. Not being able to do this is basically the last thing keeping me off of iOS at this point.

Thank fuck. Open some app: Would you like me to be the default for X? Me: no thanks. Next day: open some app: Would you like me to be the default for X? Me: ahhh, NOT AGAIN. Or have we forgotten how annoying it is that browsers all seem to do that all the damn time.

Android asks once, right after a new app is installed that has the ability to be default handler for that action. There's a slight annoyance factor here, but its taken care of quickly and its a lot easier to see this menu pop-up than dig through settings to manually handle what app controls what.

Meanwhile on my ipad, I feel like Apple is making all the choices and I just have to deal with it. This is the biggest difference between Apple and Android for me. My Android devices have the apps I like and 'just work' when launched or whatever. Apple forcibly opens the Apple apps and I need to run down my screens of installed apps to find what I actually want to run.

I don't know how in this day and age I can't choose my default handlers of a product I own.

Re: Samsung acquires Viv, a next-gen AI assistant built by creators of Apple’s Siri

#105
post #37

The AI platform that wins won't necessarily be the one that provides the most utility. It'll be the one that people bond with emotionally. I'm not talking about you here- I'm talking about teenage girls with self esteem issues, recently landed immigrants working as night janitors, divorcees with drinking problems, and anyone else who needs a friend. It's a technical challenge now, but in a few years making a good AI…

I actually think this is where googles assistant falls flat. "Speaking" with google doens't feel as natural as it does for Alexa, Cortana or even Siri. Part of the humanization i think, is the name. That's been the case for me anyway. Saying "Hey google" feels less natural than saying "Hey Alexa"

That looks like a minor point, but I think it underscores Google's cultural problem.

Google has had so many failures in the calendar/blog/assistant space because Google doesn't understand ordinary people.

It's an elite company full of elite engineers running elite engineering projects (and a lot of search). It has no internal cultural reference point for average-IQ non-elite users.

This is why Google has so bad at productising interesting ideas that Google didn't invent, and which have to deal with real competition.

The software works, mostly. But users don't feel there's anything special or unique about the experience.

You could argue - reasonably - this is all about perception management. Apple does well because it sells its products as stylish and magical. Even if the technological reality is mediocre, Apple has consistently managed to create a brand that is good at making technology seem humanised.

Google has never understood why that kind of marketing is necessary. The technology is good, it should speak for itself. If customers don't get it - no one understands why.

Now with AI, the pitch is out of key for the same reasons. Most people don't want something that anticipates their intentions, because that's just creepy. Even if it works well, it creates an experience of diminished control and empowerment.

It's like someone saying "Trust me" when they're promising you something new, but they've never given you a reason to. Does the AI know you well enough to make the right decisions? Why would it?

Unless Google can dramatise that it does, reliably, they're not going anywhere with this one, no matter how good the technology really is.

Re: Samsung acquires Viv, a next-gen AI assistant built by creators of Apple’s Siri

#106

Unfortunately I think it's pretty obvious why they were acquired, so 99% skeptical of their future. They were probably acquired because: 1. They realized just owning the software platform is very limiting (For example they can't compete with Apple no matter how good they are. Just look at Google maps. Thousand times better than the default Apple maps but will never be #1 map app on iOS because people always choose th…

Surely their business model always involved something like this. If they were as good as claimed, Google, Amazon, or Apple would buy them, if only defensively. Samsung, with its wannabe status in software platforms seems to me like the best you can do if you're not quite as good as you hope (I'm giving Samsung credit they may not deserve, perhaps they have been utterly hoodwinked).

Re: Samsung acquires Viv, a next-gen AI assistant built by creators of Apple’s Siri

#107

Unfortunately I think it's pretty obvious why they were acquired, so 99% skeptical of their future. They were probably acquired because: 1. They realized just owning the software platform is very limiting (For example they can't compete with Apple no matter how good they are. Just look at Google maps. Thousand times better than the default Apple maps but will never be #1 map app on iOS because people always choose th…

Surely their business model always involved something like this. If they were as good as claimed, Google, Amazon, or Apple would buy them, if only defensively. Samsung, with its wannabe status in software platforms seems to me like the best you can do if you're not quite as good as you hope (I'm giving Samsung credit they may not deserve, perhaps they have been utterly hoodwinked).

> If they were as good as claimed, Google, Amazon, or Apple would buy them

Or maybe they needed money, but going with those companies would mean acquihire with 100% certainty, and Samsung offered more "free" terms.

Re: Samsung acquires Viv, a next-gen AI assistant built by creators of Apple’s Siri

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As pointed out by another comment here [1], Google doesn't give you a "fair choice" in these things (beyond the ability to install competitors' offerings as separate apps) either: > Google's MADA agreement forbids OEMs from making anything but Google Now/Voice Search the default digital assistant on Android devices with Google Play. > Google is telling it's hardware partners for Google Home and Google Cast they're fo…

Yes, but at least on Android you can change your defaults. On iOS, you cannot.

> On iOS, you cannot.

You can remove almost every default app from iOS 10, including Maps.

Re: Samsung acquires Viv, a next-gen AI assistant built by creators of Apple’s Siri

#109
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

 won't let another map be the default. It doesn't matter if you have google maps installed, if you click an address apples maps open.

That depends on the application (and website) in which you're tapping the address. In some cases that will be Google Maps, if installed, in others you'll be presented with open-with options, in others still it will be Apple Maps.

Apps on iOS have to hardcode every other third-party handler that they want to work with besides Apple Maps. If an app presents you with open-with options for maps, that's because the developer took the trouble to add extra codepaths for Google Maps, HERE Maps, etc.

Re: Samsung acquires Viv, a next-gen AI assistant built by creators of Apple’s Siri

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but at least on Android you can change your defaults. On iOS, you cannot.

> On iOS, you cannot. You can remove almost every default app from iOS 10, including Maps.

... And then not be able to set another app as default.
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