Ozlo AI assistant is the new underdog filling the void left by Viv

On the heels of Samsung's acquisition of Viv just a week ago, a new AI assistant has risen into the spotlight and is jockeying to fill the shoes of its now well-known rival. Ozlo, the Greylock- and Jerry Yang-backed independent entrant to the personal assistant race, is launching today on iOS and the web in an effort to give stalwarts like Siri, Alexa and Cortana a run for their money. The new personal assistant promises early adopters a good memory, a brain full of knowledge, and an independent soul -- everything you could hope for in your new binary friend. When I sat down with Charles Jolley, CEO of Ozlo and previous head of platform for Facebook on Android, the two of us immediately had a nice laugh about the repetitive female names for assistants in the marketplace right now -- Ozlo, by name alone, is already something different. That said, a name is one thing; the more important question is whether Ozlo is useful and doesn't make its users want to throw their phone against a wall after use.