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

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

#111

Post by madamelic »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #102
aswanson wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>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.

This isn't the 1990's. AWS exists. Not to mention how hot VC is for AI startups.

Sure, we won't have 15-year olds making the next AI breakthrough but to say that AI is solely in the realm of "big business" is naive.

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

#112

Post by nileshtrivedi »

Razengan wrote: post #68
tf2manu994 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The end-user can still install them.

You can install other maps/browsers/assistants on iOS too, and other apps can interface with them if they want to. For example Chrome will automatically open YouTube links in the YouTube app. I agree that iOS is more restricted in that it doesn't let the user specify the default browser etc. for links from other apps, however.

Alternative browsers on iOS are forced to use webkit engine. Also, I don't think you can install alternative dialer/SMS apps, can you?

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

#113

Post by shostack »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #36
falaki wrote: post #2

I wonder if Samsung would ever put this on their Android Phones. I am confident it will not be able to compete with Google Now on the same device. In addition to founders, Viv got a good number of early Siri engineers. From this and other hints I gather its internals are similar to first few versions of Siri. For example, they outsource the Speech component (something Apple still does for several languages). A conseq…

Arguably, it may only have made sense for Samsung to buy Viv if Samsung is planning on ditching Google entirely. - 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 forbidden from supporting competing digital assistants. So, having Vi…

That comes across as well... Pretty anti competitive. Akin to Internet Explorer on Windows.

If the future is dumb, commoditized devices that are basically sensor packages to feed an AI, Google has basically drawn a line in the sand for anyone that wants to use licensed Android and essentially sent the message of "you can only focus on hardware".

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

#114

Post by Veratyr »

Steko wrote: post #22
cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #16

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…

> Just look at Google maps. Thousand times better than the default Apple maps No it isn't, they are basically the same for 90% of users.

Tell that to my Uber drivers who always take me to bizarre places due to Apple Maps directions.

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

#115

Post by Razengan »

Razengan wrote: post #60
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguably, it may only have made sense for Samsung to buy Viv if Samsung is planning on ditching Google entirely. - 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 forbidden from supporting competing digital assistants. So, having Vi…

> Google ... forbids OEMs ... from supporting competing digital assistants. ~Wow, that kinda makes all the ire — including the comments on this page — directed towards Apple for its "walled garden" and "not allowing choice" seem a bit unfair.~

I meant to edit my post but the time ran out.

Yes iOS has fewer flexibility in its user-facing options than Android, but Google seems to be no less controlling than Apple.

For some cases, I'm glad that iOS has these restrictions for apps, especially when it comes to Google; on the desktop, when I sign onto YouTube, I automatically get signed in for Google Search and everything else as well. That is something I really hate and find alarming, so much that I only use YouTube in private browsing.

Google can't do that on iOS. They TRY to, in a very creepy way — when I sign-in with an email on their YouTube app, all the other Google apps on my device see that email too — but they can't force global-sign-in on iOS. That's good. Some walls are good.

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

#116

Post by cocktailpeanuts »

xenobioticants wrote: post #54
chipotle_coyote wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this is a war of anecdotes, I can safely say this has never happened to me. If I search for coffee shops around me, I see...coffee shops around me. The new redesign of maps for iOS 10 has -- at least to me -- a much better UX than the current Google Maps app does, also.

To pile on: all of you guys reside in the US. Google Maps its data is much more up to date compared to Apple Maps in most of the world. Navigating in SE-Asia with Gmaps is a breeze. Apple Maps constantly sent me to places, only to have the current address owner (and Google Maps) tell me that the business I was searching for moved. Same in Europe. Doesn't hurt that Google Maps has public transit integrated pretty much…

It's not just outside of the U.S. I live in Manhattan and this happens to me all the time.

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

#117

Post by kilotaras »

SysArchitect wrote: post #96
Klathmon wrote: post #93

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.

That's literally the opposite of how it works.

1. Install email app.

2. Click on email link in other app.

3. Select email client if more than one installed

4. Click select for now / remember my choice.

5. If you clicked remember email links from all app will start that client.

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

#118

Post by aswanson »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #102
aswanson wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The cost of starting a transistor startup in the 1950s was too high so the traitorous 8 started Fairchild.

The cost of starting a SSI company was too high in 1968 so 3 dudes started intel.

The cost of starting a new mainframe company in 1976 was too high for most garage ops but turns out two hippies were ready with a better, cheaper, replacement product anyway.

The cost of starting a pc company for Gates and Allen was too high in 1981 so they left it to IBM and wrote the OS. Turned out ok.

The cost of starting and OS company in 95 was too high for Brin and Page so they left it to msft and looked at how to reliably search the web.

The cost of starting a search engine was too high in 2004 so Zuck looked at how to connect people rather than documents. Good call.

See a pattern?

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

#119

Post by xenobioticants »

Yodoshi wrote: post #56
Fricken wrote: 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…

During Google's hardware/AI Assistant a point was made about wanting google assistant to emote based on context and be personal to the user, 'A personal google for everyone. This plays to your suggestion of emotional bonding being a key need for AI assistant's. Though having it called 'Google assistant' seems to break that connection, though imagine something is in the pipeline being tested and analysed over and over…

Which Google has made exactly zero progress towards. Google Now has access to a lot more data and is a lot more useful than Siri, but if you curse at Siri for doing something wrong, she (it? they should really gender AI's.. helps with bonding) says she was only trying to help. Ask her if she watches GoT.. she gives you a quip about Lannisters. If I ask her what track is playing, she says 'let me have a listen'. Google Now just gives a beep and displays a bouncy colored wave. I can ask Siri 'do I need to wear a jacket tommorow' and it'll give me the forecast. Google just displays a search result with that particular sentence.

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

#120

Post by singularity2001 »

thowAway7890 wrote: post #41

Viv still uses Nuance according to their last demo, viv seems to be just a developers platform. Even Siri does not use Nuance anymore. Samsung probably needs developers for their IoT products in order to compete. Pixel's new assistant will not be available on other android devices with nougat so make sense that Samsung will have to bundle their own into their devices.

>> Siri does not use Nuance anymore

evidence?

It still sucks.

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