NEW YORK--Things are starting out miserably for Bixby. Samsung's upstart artificial intelligence digital assistant got an "incomplete" grade when it first turned up on the Galaxy S8 and S8 smartphones that launched in March. The reason is that the voice-based commands that promise to make Bixby behave more like Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana, Amazon's Alexa, and Google's Assistant were delayed, at least in the U.S. (Bixby Voice is fully operational in South Korea, where Samsung is based.) Now the Korea Herald is reporting further delays to the English-speaking version of Bixby, apparently because Samsung can't amass the "big data" required for a good enough deep learning-based experience. Samsung's Bixby finally gets a voice -- sort of While Samsung recently granted early access to select S8 and S8 users who expressed interest in trying out Bixby Voice, me among them, I'm being kind to suggest that Bixby has a lot of catching up to do compared to its rivals.

While Apple recently introduced the HomePod and iOS 11, former employees who worked on Siri told the Wall Street Journal the virtual assistant is lagging behind its competitors because of company concerns about user privacy. Siri, which competes with Amazon Alexa and Google Home devices, is struggling to rise above the competition because of Apple's culture, which prioritizes user privacy, making it hard to personalize and improve the product, former Siri team employees said. Read: Amazon Sees Apple's Siri Talking With Alexa Virtual Assistant, Report Says Amazon and Google assistants had an advantage over Siri because they had more data from their search engines they could use to train their virtual assistants and have less-restrictive privacy policies than Apple, the former employees said. The Journal report said Apple protects user privacy by randomly tagging Siri searches and keeping the information tagged for a timeframe of six months, unlike its competitors Amazon and Google, which retain the data until ask for it to be discarded. That issue has delayed efforts to boost Siri because Apple "relinquished control of data before it could be used to gauge the impact of software tweaks," employees told the Journal.

The company's widely touted artificial intelligence tool Bixby -- seen as a rival for Apple's (AAPL, Tech30) Siri -- won't be fully operational in time for the U.S. release of the Galaxy S8. While some elements of Bixby will be included in the April 21 launch, the headline voice activation feature won't be available in the U.S. until "later this spring," Samsung (SSNLF) said in a statement. The delay is an embarrassing hiccup for Samsung. The rollout of the tech giant's first high-end smartphone since the debacle over its fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 is being closely watched. After a bungled recall that cost the company more than $5 billion and ultimately led it to kill off of the Note 7, analysts have said Samsung needs a flawless launch for the S8.

Viv is the next-generation virtual personal assistant, brought to you by the team that created Siri. Viv will provide a truly open platform that lets any developer extend Viv's knowledge and capabilities. VentureBeat named Viv one of the top 15 interesting startups to watch in 2016, and after our acquisition by Samsung, Viv is now poised to bring our vision of a new kind of user interaction to the world at global scale. Check out this demo from TechCrunch Disrupt NY, and watch the power of Viv in action! In this role, you will directly contribute to the Viv Assistant's Natural Language Understanding platform.

The company confirms its AI assistant will have its own side button on the S8. Eventually, you'll be able to boss it around on more than just a phone. What's Samsung planning to do with you?" Bixby is Samsung's new digital voice assistant, and it will debut on the upcoming Galaxy S8. It will have its own dedicated button on the side of the phone, letting you communicate with the artificial intelligence in a sort of a walkie-talkie way. But Samsung's plan for Bixby, which it views as a "bright sidekick" to control your phone, doesn't stop there, said Injong Rhee, head of R&D for Samsung's mobile software and services operations. Injong Rhee, Samsung's head of R&D for mobile software and services, has led the development of Bixby. "We start off with the phone and can quickly expand into other devices," said Rhee, a Samsung exec known for his loose locks and casual style. Bixby is the latest entrant in the crowded field of digital assistants that already includes Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant and Microsoft's Cortana. Every tech heavyweight is investing in these assistants because they're heralded as the future of how we'll interact with our gadgets. The hope is to build a relationship with you now and ultimately get you to buy more of their products later. Samsung believes artificial intelligence is the next major wave of computing, and Bixby is the manifestation of that belief. Gartner reckons that by 2019, digital assistants will be the primary way consumers interact with their smart homes. Instead of being able to answer questions like "What's the weather today," Bixby will help you control your phone. You'll be able to do things like say, "Find a photo of the Sagrada Familia.

VentureBeat's Bots Channel tracks the most important news and analysis from the exploding field of bots and messaging. Each week, we select the top stories and present them in our free weekly newsletter, BotBeat. We include news stories by VentureBeat staff, guest articles from leading figures in the bots community, and a good number of posts from a wide variety of other outlets. You can subscribe to our BotBeat newsletter to receive this information in your inbox every Thursday. Instead of "Hey, Siri," or "OK, Google," what if you could personalize your device and wake it up accordingly?

Samsung is apparently ready to bet big on artificial intelligence, with a massive amount of money set aside for buying more AI companies. Artificial intelligence is rapidly gaining ground and it's playing an increasingly bigger role in people's everyday lives. From smart digital assistants to all sorts of gadgets, robots, infotainment systems and more, AI is shaping up as a cornerstone of modern technology and it adds convenience in virtually every technology area. We've seen an impressive growth in the artificial intelligence field in recent years and the trend is gaining momentum still, with more companies embedding AI technology into more products and areas. Samsung itself is expected to take a big AI plunge with a smart assistant called Bixby, presumably set to grace the next-generation Samsung Galaxy S8 flagship.

Citing an unnamed Samsung Electronics official in the US, the report said, the Korean tech giant has recently decided to earmark at least US$1 billion to acquire AI tech companies or stakes in the firms. From left are VIV Labs' Vice President Adam Cheyer, VIV Labs' CEO Dag Kittlaus and Samsung Electronics' Vice President Rhee In-jong at a news conference held in Seoul in November last year. Samsung acquired the Silicon Valley-based AI platform company in October. "Despite several recent deals, the management pointed out the company still needed more fundamental investments into AI," an industry source was quoted as saying in the report. Over the past year, Samsung has purchased 10 tech firms, including Harman International, the US car infotainment giant.

Viv was named after the Latin root meaning live. Its San Jose, California, offices are decorated with tchotchkes bearing the numbers six and five (VI and V in roman numerals). When Apple announced the iPhone 4S on October 4, 2011, the headlines were not about its speedy A5 chip or improved camera. Instead they focused on an unusual new feature: an intelligent assistant, dubbed Siri. At first Siri, endowed with a female voice, seemed almost human in the way she understood what you said to her and responded, an advance in artificial intelligence that seemed to place us on a fast track to the Singularity. She was brilliant at fulfilling certain requests, like "Can you set the alarm for 6:30?" or "Call Diane's mobile phone." And she had a personality: If you asked her if there was a God, she would demur with deft wisdom. "My policy is the separation of spirit and silicon," she'd say.

Samsung Galaxy S8 is tipped to launch by the third week of April, reports reveal. Ahead of the launch, rumors regarding the flagship device is making rounds on the internet regarding the display, camera set-up, battery, storage capacity and more. Well, there's one very interesting feature the Galaxy S8 is confirmed to come packed with, guess what? Well, Samsung Galaxy S8 will be equipped with a newly developed digital assistant called - Bixby. Being just a rumor all this while, Samsung finally confirms Bixby's arrival.