Samsung could use its ‘bargaining power’ to collaborate with Google on Bixby

Ben Schoon | Sep 3 2018 - 6:57 am PT

Since the debut of its Galaxy S8 in 2017, Samsung has been heavily pushing its own AI system known as Bixby. While most acknowledge that Google Assistant is a better option, Samsung isn’t giving up, and apparently, it wants to get Google on board with Bixby too…

Speaking in a conference ahead of IFA 2018 last week, Samsung CEO of consumer electronics Kim Hyun-suk said that Samsung “could consider” several forms of collaboration with Google on its AI endeavors (via Korea Herald). He hinted that Bixby could be used to “call up” Google services, such as Google Maps, if Samsung were to collaborate with Google. He pointed out that “collaboration is essential” for voice controlled-AI such as Bixby.

Samsung is developing its own voice assistant, Bixby, but we could consider various (forms) of collaboration with Google in the field. For example, we would call up Bixby, but it could lead us to one of Google’s services, like Google Map

Apparently, Kim Hyun-suk thinks that Samsung could use its “bargaining power” to get Google more on board with Bixby. He says:

Each company has areas they particularly excel in, and collaboration is essential for perfect voice control. Samsung is a company that sells around 500 million units of devices worldwide every year, and we can use this as our bargaining power to negotiate the level of cooperation with AI leaders like Google.

Currently, Google does integrate with Bixby on select apps (in beta) such as Google Play Music, Google Maps, and Gmail, but there hasn’t been much action between the two companies here. Of course, that’s for good reason seeing as Samsung’s phones do already ship with Google Assistant right alongside Bixby, but it would be interesting to see if Samsung were to try to use its sheer numbers to try and get Google to be a bit more cooperative with its option.

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