Bixby AI Speaker News: Harman Chief Builds High Expectation for Unrealeased Device, Says It Will Be 'Unbeatable'

By Jessica Ferrera, Christian Post Contributor Thursday, September 07, 2017

For Harman's chief, the yet-to-be-released smart device from Samsung has what it takes to beat the forerunners in the intensifying race for the best artificially intelligent speakers.

This week, the biggest companies in the world of technology and electronics manufacturing industry gathered in Berlin, Germany for the IFA 2017 trade show. Samsung and Harman reportedly used the opportunity to hold a "confidential meeting" where they discussed the upcoming Bixby-based smart speaker.

Samsung completed its multi-billion acquisition of Harman in March.

After the said meeting, Harman CEO Dinesh Paliwal confirmed to The Korea Herald that he and Samsung Electronics CEO Boo-Keun Yoon have discussed how their companies will contribute to the development of the Bixby smart speaker.

Paliwal is reportedly confident that their upcoming smart speaker will be "unbeatable," even though Amazon's and Google's AI speakers have been in the market for quite some time now.

"A significant level of joint research and development of the device is underway. The Samsung speaker will have a better AI platform than Google Assistant and Amazon's Alexa," Paliwal told the publication.

Bixby is Samsung's own AI platform that the company further developed after acquiring Viv Labs — the technology firm responsible for the beginnings of Apple's AI, Siri. Bixby debuted on the Galaxy S8 and is also supported by the Galaxy Note 8.

However, when Samsung first announced Bixby, their plan was to incorporate the AI platform to its entire ecosystem, including its home appliances and other electronic products. This was also reiterated by Paliwal during his Korea Herald interview.

Paliwal said: "What we are going to launch will be a whole new ecosystem. It will be a platform that will be able to connect all devices and home appliances."

This aspect is likely giving Samsung and Harman the confidence that their upcoming AI speaker can still be a top placer in the race despite coming in a few years later than Amazon Echo and Google Home.