Samsung has just announced Today that its projected voice-powered digital assistant named "Bixby" will be debuting along with the upcoming flagship Galaxy S8 smartphone set to be unveiled by the South Korean tech giant. Bixby will be entering a crowded market of digital assistants powered by artificial intelligence technologies that would include Apple's Siri, the Google Assistant, Microsoft's Cortana, and Amazon's Alexa.

According to Phys.org, Samsung said that Bixby is aimed towards letting people control mobile apps with spoken directives. "Bixby is going to be our first stride towards completely opening up new ways of interacting with your phone," Injong Rhee, Samsung Electronics Head of Research & Development, said in a recently released statement.

Rhee also said that Bixby will be a new intelligent interface on the upcoming Galaxy S8 smartphone. A Galaxy S8 smartphone is expected to be revealed next week and will be having a set of pre-installed applications that will be working with Bixby, according to Samsung's recent announcement.

As a recall, Samsung late of last year bought Viv Labs, which is an artificial intelligence startup company with co-founders who were part of the team that built and developed Apple virtual assistant Siri, which Apple bought roughly seven years ago.

According to AFP, Bixby will differ from the digital aides that are already on the market in ways that would include controlling nearly ever task in applications instead of just limited sets and being flexible in terms of understanding what users are saying.

Right now Apple, Samsung, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are all gearing towards developing the most sophisticated connected assistant, working to give software the ability to understand what people would say and even make suggestions in terms of needs or desires.

Amazon's virtual assistant Alexa was one of the main highlights at the Consumer Electronics Show gadget gala early this year held in Las Vegas. Microsoft, on the other end, recently bought Maluuba, a Montreal-based startup focused on making machines that are able to think the way people do.

Related