US launch of Samsung's Bixby delayed due to data-deficient AI

Voice assistants are all the rage these days with every major software vendor having their own AI driven assistant to help you with your day. Samsung too forayed into the personal voice assistant arena with in-house developed Bixby. Bixby debuted along with the Galaxy S8/S8+ but has not received quite the patronage Samsung had hoped. Bixby's voice capabilities are currently restricted to the Korean market. A Samsung spokesperson has told the Korean Herald that the English version of Bixby has been delayed for want of big data to aid in the AI's deep learning. 

Similar to Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Microsoft Cortana, Bixby aims to connect and drive all of Samsung's electronic devices. Apart from the lack of big data analytics, there seems to be communication hurdles between Samsung Research in California and its headquarters in Korea. The geographical and language barriers seem to pose an obstacle for timely and effective communication. Bixby's beta testing was also not very favorable.

With the acquisition of startup company, Viv Labs (the developer behind Apple's Siri), Samsung hopes to integrate their AI technology into Bixby soon after the software becomes feature complete. It remains to be seen how much of a threat Bixby poses to the competition. However, with the proliferation of Samsung's mobile devices and a large installed base of its home appliances, Bixby's usage might possibly proliferate at a faster rate.

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