Seoul – Tech giant, Samsung, announced on Thursday its plan to buy Viv Labs, a start-up founded by the developers of the voice assistant Siri which is used by competitor Apple.
The South Korean company plans to use Viv’s artificial intelligence system across all of its devices and services, a statement said.
“Viv’s “sophisticated natural language understanding and machine learning capabilities” makes the product particularly attractive,’’ according to Injong Rhee, Chief Technology officer of Samsung’s mobile communications division.
It was not reported how much Samsung expects to pay for the acquisition of the California-based firm.
As part of the deal, Viv founders Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham promised to work closely with Samsung and to still continue to operate independently.
Kittlaus, Viv’s co-founder and chief executive, said that Samsung offers his business a global opportunity.
“We see a future that is decidedly beyond apps, where you can get what you need quickly and easily no matter where you are,” he said.
On Tuesday, internet giant Google launched its Pixel smartphone in San Francisco, which uses Google assistant, a type of artificial intelligence.