‘Samsung wants to make user-centric AI world’
SAN JOSE — Samsung Electronics’ vision for artificial intelligence (AI) technology is to develop more user-centric devices so that a variety of AI-powered devices can communicate with each other seamlessly, the firm’s AI research leader said Friday.
“Our vision is to empower users to have personalized multi-device AI systems as we work on. We are dreaming AI will become always helpful, learning, there and safe,” Larry Heck, senior vice president and head of AI research of Samsung Research America, said during a press conference at Samsung’s Device Solutions America headquarters in Silicon Valley.
Stating that AI research has been shifting from “device-centric to user-centric,” Heck also said Samsung is developing technologies to provide multiple ways for users to interact with AI through voice, vision, the screen and touch.
Samsung has continued its all-in strategy in AI, trying to expand the AI ecosystem, centered on its AI platform Bixby. It also set its goal to place the Bixby assistant in all of its connected devices by 2020.
However, Heck said AI technology is still in its early phase and there should be more efforts to develop further.
“Despite the last five, six, seven years of progress, we are still very early in this space. From the perspective of the user trust, they trust that and talk to a personal assistant that will always be helpful to them. I don’t think we have established that yet today. It’s made great progress in restaurants though,” Heck said.
To lead AI-based innovation, Samsung has been recruiting talented individuals in AI technology by setting up research labs across the globe. Currently it has seven research labs around the world.
“During the past year, we were very busy opening AI centers. In addition to Silicon Valley and Seoul, we opened centers last year in Toronto, Cambridge, New York and Moscow,” he said.