Dinesh Paliwal, CEO of audio tech manufacturer Harman International, has high hopes for the AI speaker his company is producing with Samsung.
The CEO recently told The Korea Herald that the speaker “will have a better AI platform than Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa.” He also noted that “a significant level of joint research and development of the device is underway.”
The comments came following a closed-door meeting between Samsung president and CEO Yoon Boo-keun and Paliwal at IFA 2017 in Berlin.
“What we are going to launch will be a whole new ecosystem,” Paliwal told The Korea Herald. “It will be a platform that will be able to connect all devices and home appliances.”
The speaker will be the first product to be co-developed by the two companies since Samsung acquired Harman for $8 billion USD in March 2017.
Samsung purchased Harman with the intention of building its presence in the automotive technology market. Harman continues to operate independently as a standalone Samsung subsidiary.
Samsung’s mobile head mentioned the AI speaker in a recent interview, telling CNBC: “I want to be moving quite heavily on it.” Yoon also spoke about the device in an IFA press conference, promising that an “unrivaled” AI device will come out in the next year.
Considering the middling reviews that have come out for Samsung’s AI Bixby so far, one can’t help but wonder if this is an achievable feat — though perhaps Samsung has new tricks up its sleeve courtesy of the talent and assets it acquired with Viv, an AI startup co-founded by Siri vets.
Source: The Korea Herald
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