Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. on Thursday said it agreed to acquire Viv Labs Inc., the company behind open artificial intelligence platform Viv. The financial details of the transactions were not disclosed by the company. With Viv, Samsung will be able to unlock and offer new service experiences for its customers, including one that simplifies user interfaces, understands the context of the user and offers the user the most appropriate and convenient suggestions and recommendations, the company said in a statement. As part of the acquisition, the founding team will work closely with Samsung's Mobile Communications business, but continue to operate independently under its existing leadership, the statement added. Viv was founded by Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham, the original creators of Siri, in 2012.

A small drone taught itself to judge distances using only one eye during trials aboard the International Space Station, ESA-backed researchers have reported. Although humans can effortlessly estimate distances with a single eye, robots still lack this capability. "It is a mathematical impossibility to extract distances to objects from one single image, if the object has not been encountered before," explains Guido de Croon from Delft University of Technology, one of the investigators. "But if we recognise something to be a car, then we know its physical characteristics, and we can use that information to estimate its distance from us. A similar logic is what we wanted the drone to learn during our experiment."

Samsung said Thursday it was buying a prominent US artificial intelligence (AI) start-up founded by the creators of Siri -- the voice-based digital assistant used on the iPhones of arch-rival Apple. The South Korean giant said the acquisition of California-based Viv Labs would bolster voice-based services across the full range of its electronics products that include smartphones, TVs, refrigerators and washing machines. Samsung offered no details regarding the cost or financing of the deal. Viv Labs was co-founded in 2012 by Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham who had previously created, and then sold, Siri to Apple. Rhee In-Jong, the chief technology officer at Samsung's mobile unit, said the acquisition would provide AI-based voice assistance services its customers can use across all Samsung devices and products.

The digital assistant technology race is heating up, with Samsung announcing plans to acquire the open artificial intelligence platform Viv on Wednesday. It's an intriguing move, not least because it means the team who created Apple's voice-powered assistant Siri is forming closer ties with the South Korean electronics giant. SEE ALSO: Someone turned Samsung's Note7 into a lethal weapon with a'GTA 5' mod As an intelligent interface that can interact with a range of devices, Viv is "an ideal candidate" to integrate with Samsung home appliances and wearables, Injong Rhee, CTO of Samsung Electronics, said in a statement. Samsung makes a whole range of home appliances, so the acquisition suggests the company is keen to have them interacting with customers in the future. Viv will remain an independent subsidiary of Samsung.

Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp wants consumers to connect with mini talking robots. The talking robot called Kirobi Mini, whose name comes from "hope," is just as smart as a 5-year-old. The 4-inch-tall Kirobo Mini is small enough to be carried around. When people place the Kirobo Mini in their cars, it encourages safe driving by saying phrases like "Oops!" when the driver steps on the brakes suddenly, and "Don't leave me behind", when left in the vehicle. The Kirobi Mini comes equipped with Bluetooth, camera and microphone, and can connect to a smartphone, but needs to be installed with a software application.

Samsung Electronics Co. SSNHZ 0.00 % said Thursday that it will buy U.S. artificial intelligence company Viv Labs Inc., as the South Korean smartphone giant turns to the creators of Apple Inc. AAPL 0.04 % 's Siri service to beef up its own mobile software and services. The deal, for an undisclosed amount, is Samsung's fourth U.S. technology company acquisition in a little more than two years, underscoring the technology player's new willingness to look outside the company to spur innovation, particularly in areas like software, where it has traditionally been weak. The aim for Samsung is to pack its phones with more eye-popping features to help its premium devices stand out from a pack of competitors, including Apple's iPhones. After its acquisition last year of mobile payments startup LoopPayfor about 160 million, Samsung adopted the Burlington, Mass.-based company's technology to launch Samsung Pay, a mobile payment service that rivals Apple Pay. Samsung is looking to follow a similar model with San Jose, Calif.-based Viv Labs, which was founded four years ago by a team that includes Siri co-creators Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer.

Samsung Electronics Co. is joining the race to create the smartest digital assistant by acquiring Viv, a Silicon Valley start-up launched by the same entrepreneurs who sold Siri to Apple. The deal announced Wednesday provides Samsung with technology to compete against Google Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc. in the increasingly important field of programming computers to learn and respond as if they were human. The specialty, also known as artificial intelligence, has hatched a flock of voice-activated digital concierges -- such as Siri, Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana and Google's Assistant -- that work in personal computers, smartphones and Internet-connected speakers. Samsung plans to implant Viv into phones, televisions and a wide range of other devices. The South Korean company did not disclose how much it paid for the start-up.

From Siri creator Dag Kittlaus comes Viv, a product that aims to be the next generation personal assistant. Kittlaus sat down with USA TODAY's Ed Baig to talk about Viv and where he thinks its headed. Samsung plans to make its range of smartphones smarter with its acquisition of Viv, an AI virtual assistant platform started by the man who created Siri. SAN FRANCISCO -- Samsung Electronics just accelerated into the voice-assistant fast lane. The South Korean electronics company, which has been grappling with extended fallout from its recalled Galaxy Note 7, announced Wednesday that it was buying Viv, the machine-learning virtual assistant company started by Siri founder Dag Kittlaus.

Samsung, the largest maker of televisions and smartphones in the world, is buying Viv Labs, a high-profile artificial intelligence startup founded by the inventors of Apple's Siri voice assistant, the South Korean electronics conglomerate said Wednesday. The move is a major land grab in the battle for cutting-edge artificial intelligence taking place among tech giants. Samsung, which has lagged in such services, is now positioned to add intelligent, Siri-like voice capabilities to its vast collection of home and mobile electronics. "We have a unique opportunity to take advantage of AI, and show the rest of the industry what the smart, connected world can look like," Jacopo Lenzi, Samsung's Senior Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Acquisitions, said in an interview. The companies declined to disclose the purchase price of the deal.

Samsung said in a statement it plans to integrate the San Jose-based company's AI platform, called Viv, into the Galaxy smartphones and expand voice-assistant services to home appliances and wearable technology devices. Technology firms are locked in an increasingly heated race to make AI good enough to let consumers interact with their devices more naturally, especially via voice. Alphabet Inc's Google is widely considered to be the leader in AI, but others including Amazon.com, Apple and Microsoft have also launched their own offerings including voice-powered digital assistants. Samsung, the world's top smartphone maker, is also hoping to differentiate its devices, from phones to fridges, by incorporating AI.