Samsung Acquires Siri Creator Viv Labs

Following the Google Assistant reveal at an event in San Francisco on Tuesday, Samsung announced Wednesday its acquisition of Viv Labs, makers of the Viv smart assistant led by the Siri co-creator Dag Kittlaus. Samsung's own voice assistant, S Voice, has been a failure in terms of consumer usage. "Unlike other existing AI-based services, Viv has a sophisticated natural language understanding, machine learning capabilities and strategic partnerships that will enrich a broader service ecosystem," Injong Rhee, chief technology officer for Samsung's mobile communications business, said in a statement. Contrary to popular opinion, Siri was not developed by Apple. It started out as an independent third party program that Apple later bought.