Samsung planning to develop AI-powered multi-device system

Toronto

The South Korean tech giant presented its future vision for AI while announcing this week a new AI centre in Montreal, Canada. “By leveraging the power of AI in Samsung’s products and services, we must focus on creating new values, never seen nor experienced before,” said Seunghwan Cho, Executive Vice President of Samsung Research.

By providing multiple touchpoints where a user can interact with AI, Samsung said its multi-modal interaction platform (voice, vision, screen, touch) will make experiences more relevant and personal in the future.

“One key element that will move AI to being more widely adopted is multi-device systems, ie a variety of AI-enabled devices that communicate seamlessly with each other,” said Larry Heck, Head of AI Centres for Samsung Research America.

“Samsung is uniquely positioned to be a leader in this regard. It’s not just how each device uses AI, it’s how they use it together,” Heck said. The newly-opened AI centre in Montreal is Samsung’s seventh AI research facility to open this year making it the fourth in North America alone.

The global AI centres, which are also located in South Korea, Russia and Britain, support the company’s efforts in AI that include the development of Samsung’s virtual assistant, Bixby.

Gregory Dudek of the McGill University School of Computer Science and an expert in a wide range of AI technologies – from Machine Learning to human-robot interactions – will lead the Montreal AI Centre.

“We are excited to open a new Samsung AI Centre in Montreal, which will conduct research in machine learning and robotics enabled multi-modal interactions,” Dudek said.

Samsung is now planning to expand its AI research centres to other technology and talent-rich areas. Earlier this year, the company announced its plans to expand the number of advanced AI researchers to a total of about 1,000 globally by 2020.