The artificial intelligence sector is experiencing a great moment of development and progress in the hands of large technology companies such as Google or Apple that are worrying about integrating it into their services and thus transferring it to the day-to-day lives of users. But behind artificial intelligence there are lesser-known companies that are its true architects. It is the case of Viv.
Viv, the artificial intelligence assistant, has attracted a lot of interest and attention over the last year. Founded from the collaboration between Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham, the same ones who originally created Siri, the virtual assistant that Apple integrates in its mobile devices and recently, also in its desktops, it has been considered as an assistant. staff much more powerful and more capable than Siri itself. Now, as reported by the TechCrunch website, Samsung has bought Viv and has plans to implement it on its devices.
Viv "will make Samsung smarter"
It is a common practice that large technology companies such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook and many others acquire other smaller companies, often startups, that have been able to develop certain technologies or services that, implemented in their own, represent a value added for your customers' user experience. We have seen it countless times, and we will continue to see it in the future.
The most recent example is the acquisition of Viv, an artificial intelligence technology that has received high praise over the past year. In this case, history repeats itself, although some protagonists have changed.
The creators of Viv created Siri, which was acquired by Apple. Later, these same creators developed Viv, which has now been acquired by its great rival, Samsung. It is not clear how much the final price of the agreement is to which Samsung has come to take over Viv, but considering that in 2010 Apple paid an estimated amount of more than 200 million dollars, it is likely that Samsung has scratched its pocket even more, since it is a technology that is born from the hands of the same creators, that has their previous experience, and that many qualify as more powerful and more capable than Siri.
According to TechCrunch, at the moment Viv will continue to operate as an independent company offering its services to Samsung and its devices.. This is a kind of transition phase that, with the passage of time, usually ends in a complete integration.
Viv offers a great advantage
Viv was initially unveiled earlier this year. Kittlaus and Cheyer claimed that Viv was far more capable than Siri and that they never intended for Siri to become some kind of AI icon in the way that she did.
Viv's great strength is its integration with third-party applications and services, something that Apple is taking very slowly to Siri with iOS 10. As a curious fact, from 9to5Google they point out that Siri integrated data from 42 different services when it was first launched, however Apple decided to simplify it before adding it to the iPhone..
Samsung has plans with Viv, and now takes an advantageous position
At the beginning of this year, both Facebook and Google showed their interest in Viv however, the negotiations did not come to fruition. Still, Viv has raised funds from personalities like Mark Zuckerberg himself or Twitter manager Jack Dorsey.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Samsung VP Jacopo Lenzi has explained that Viv could have a direct impact on more than just Samsung's mobile division:
This is an acquisition that is being made by the mobile team, but we clearly see the interest in all our devices. From our perspective and from the customer's perspective, the interest and power of this reality comes from taking advantage of Samsung's global scale as well as the wealth of contact points we have with consumers.
Samsung's acquisition of Viv gives the company a great deal of advantage over other Android device manufacturers. In addition, it is especially notable considering that Google has just presented its new Pixel smartphones, the only ones with Google Assistant, which for the moment will be exclusive. In addition, the acquisition also reduces the South Korean company's dependence on Google.