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Friday, November 24, 2017

Samsung to build new lab for machine learning research | Digital Journal - Technology

Photo: James Walker
"Samsung's announced a new research centre to focus on developing artificial intelligence and machine learning. The company's current AI capabilities are perceived to be behind its rivals, a weakness Samsung is working hard to address" inform James Walker, Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for Technology news. 


Samsung made the announcement in a Korean press release this week. The company told Reuters it will be operating the research lab as a joint venture between two of its businesses. Samsung's mobile and consumer electronics arms will both use the facility to help develop new technologies.

Samsung's use of AI was fairly limited until earlier this year. The launch of the company's Bixby digital assistant marked Samsung's intentions to gain a position in consumer AI, an increasingly competitive segment of the technology market. Although Bixby hasn't surpassed rivals such as Siri and Google Assistant, Samsung's set a rapid development pace and is already talking about its ambitions for the platform. 

The new AI research centre will help Samsung to gain expertise in AI as it expands Bixby and its other products. AI's becoming an important component of smartphones that's used to power apps, improve security and boost performance. Some recent handsets have begun to include dedicated AI co-processor chips, a trend Samsung could jump on with next year's Galaxy S9. 

The company's already acknowledged rumours that AI will be a major selling point of its next-generation mobile products. The Galaxy S9 is currently shaping up to be an iterative enhancement of this year's S8, with much of Samsung's development concentrated on a new software experience. Proactive assistance and AI-powered convenience features will account for several of the new capabilities, requiring research that may be undertaken at the lab. 

Source: Digital Journal