When Samsung launched its Bixby digital assistant with the Galaxy S8, some basic features were missing, and they were slow to arrive. On top of that, Bixby was installed alongside the well-established Google Assistant, prompting questions as to whether it was really necessary to add another digital assistant to an already crowded market. Samsung may have realized Bixby's shortcomings as a digital assistant, but with Bixby 2.0 the Korean tech giant is hardly backing down. Bixby 2.0 is the lead element of Samsung's bid to build its own ecosystem of connected devices and services. The new Bixby strategy is vastly different from what came before it, which is why we've chosen to publish this article to accompany our original Bixby cheat sheet, which focuses more on its digital assistant features.

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 29: Sriram Thodla, senior director of services and new business at Samsung, speaks about the new voice agent named'Bixby' that is featured on the new Samsung Galaxy S8 during a launch event, March 29, 2017 in New York City. Following the recall and discontinuation of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, the Galaxy S8 is the new flagship smartphone for Samsung. While all eyes will be on the Galaxy Note 9 at Samsung's next launch event, Bixby 2.0 is likely to debut in a smart speaker which may actually damage its sales potential. Bixby is Samsung's attempt to compete against Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa and so far, it has been nothing short of a disaster. This is because compared to Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and even the much-maligned Siri, Bixby is hopelessly outclassed.

Samsung has been teasing its upgraded Bixby 2.0 assistant for several months now, but when is it actually going to show up in something you can buy? The company's AI research center head Gray G. Lee told the Korea Herald that the new AI helper will arrive with the upcoming flagship phone in the second half of 2018 -- in other words, the next Galaxy Note. While Lee didn't show all of Samsung's cards, he promised better natural language processing, faster responses and better results in noisy environments. As outlined last October, Bixby 2.0 should make use of Samsung's Viv acquisition to both encourage more conversational commands as well as deep linking, multiple users and more. It's not certain if everything mentioned at Bixby 2.0's unveiling will make the cut.

Samsung's Bixby voice assistant is lagging behind the likes of Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa in terms of speed and voice recognition. However, that might finally change as the company has confirmed that Bixby 2.0 will launch later this year. Head of AI at Samsung Research Gary G. Lee told the Korean Herald that Bixby 2.0 will launch alongside the Galaxy Note 9, which is rumored to be released in August. Lee also confirmed that Bixby 2.0 will come with upgraded and enhanced natural language process, improved noise resistance and quicker response times. The current version of Bixby is able to answer most queries easily, but the problem is that users must be very specific in how they ask questions.

Gray G. Lee, head of the AI Center under Samsung Research, said Thursday the upcoming flagship Galaxy Note 9 will adopt an upgraded artificial intelligence platform, Bixby 2.0. To the question of the expected launch of Bixby 2.0, Lee told The Korea Herald that the upcoming flagship smartphone model in the second half of the year would feature the advanced Bixby platform, after a press conference to announce Samsung's vision for AI. Samsung Research AI Center Head Gray G. Lee (By Song Su-hyun /The Korea Herald) According to his remarks, Bixby 2.0 will be upgraded with enhanced natural language processes, improved noise resistance capability and quicker response times. Samsung is preparing to unveil the Galaxy Note 9 in August, which will be one of the attention-grabbing high-end smartphones to be launched in the second half of this year. To improve its AI platform and technologies, Samsung plans to expand its workforce that specializes in AI to up to 1,000, continue creating AI centers in different parts of the world, and consider mergers and acquisitions of promising AI businesses, Lee said.

Samsung Electronics has acquired a 100% stake in artificial intelligence (AI) startup Kngine, the company announced today. The San Francisco based startup specialises in an AI search engine that understands, answers questions and perform actions. This is the second AI startup acquisition by Samsung in the last four months. In late November 2017, the company had acquired Korean AI startup Fluenty, which also specialises in conversational AI. Set up in 2013 in Egypt, Kngine is an intelligent engine that can be used to automate customer service, power voice interfaces and drive enterprise search.

After smartphones, the next big thing arguably is artificial intelligence enabled voice-activated virtual assistants. Although the smartphone will not become obsolete any time soon, interaction with multiple devices would be a reality as a result of virtual assistants like Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri. Among the big tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft that are contributing to making the virtual assistant platforms more tech-savvy, Samsung's newly announced Bixby is a cut above the rest as cutting-edge and state-of-the-art AI technology is its backbone. Bixby 2.0 is integrated with Viv which for the uninitiated is developed by the tech gurus who were the masterminds of Siri. In 2010 Siri was sold to Apple and the developers ultimately quit Apple and formed a new company of their own which is widely known as Viv Labs.

The battle to place a microphone in every home has intensified. Samsung today confirmed that its long-rumored Bixby smart speaker will be out sometime in the second half of this year. The'premium' speaker is set to take on Apple's £319 ($349) HomePod - although the company has yet to reveal its exact features. Samsung is releasing a'premium' Bixby smart speaker that will listen to your every word as soon as this autumn. Details about how the speaker might look have not been announced.

Back in December, it was reported that Samsung's Bixby smart speaker would arrive sometime in the first half of 2018. However, Samsung's mobile division president DJ Koh has confirmed that will no longer be the case. Speaking with The Wall Street Journal, Koh confirmed that the voice-activated Bixby smart speaker will be released sometime during the second half of 2018. Koh didn't give out any more details about the upcoming smart speaker, but he did say that Samsung is aiming to release a premium device. "When I introduce the first model, I don't want to give the impression that Samsung delivered another affordable mass model," Koh said.

Samsung may have botched the launch of its virtual assistant Bixby, but it has already promised to patch things up with the next release, which will leverage "deep linking capabilities and enhanced natural language abilities" in order to deliver "a predictive, personalized experience." In addition to integrating Viv's technology for Bixby 2.0, the Korean giant has now acquired Fluenty, an AI startup co-founded by local accelerator FuturePlay. Fluenty is best known for its chatbot and assistant service that suggest smart replies, which is similar to what Google and LinkedIn offer but is instead made for various social networking services, including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Line, Kakao Talk, Naver Talk and more. As simple as it sounds, Fluenty relies on a deep learning model initially based on "over 700 million public chat conversations, searching for patterns in replies most frequently used by people." The startup then spent over two years to reduce the loading times from seven seconds to a mere 50 ms.