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takyon writes:

Samsung has acquired Viv Labs, an artificial intelligence startup formed by some of the original team that made Apple's Siri personal assistant:

Samsung is turning its attention to personal assistants—the company has acquired Viv Labs, a startup founded by Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer, and Chris Brigham, all of whom were part of the original Siri team that Apple bought in 2010. The three departed Apple shortly after the acquisition to start Viv Labs, which recently showed off its AI personal assistant at Disrupt NY. While pricing has not been disclosed, the deal has been confirmed by Kittlaus in a post on Medium .

Viv Labs will continue to operate independently from Samsung, but it will share intelligence with the hardware manufacturer with the intent of integrating Viv into products. "Samsung will drastically accelerate our vision," Kittlaus writes. "For us, the glaringly obvious advantage Samsung brings to our vision is scale." [...] It's important to keep in mind that Viv's AI assistant hasn't officially launched yet—it has only been demoed. That was apparently enough for Samsung to want to invest in the company, and it's clear that Samsung understands how important AI will be going forward. At this week's Google event, the company heavily pushed the features of its assistant, emphasizing the conversational interactions users can have with it via their smartphones. Apple has been pushing Siri into anything and everything it can, including the Apple Watch and its new AirPods.

Also at Re/code and The Wall Street Journal . Samsung press release.

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