Samsung buys AI startup Fluenty to improve Bixby

Samsung has bought South Korean AI startup Fluenty aimed at bolstering its virtual assistant Bixby. The acquisition was first noted by The Korea Herald.

Fluenty that specializes in conversational artificial intelligence (AI) was founded by former search giant Naver and Daum developers and has an app that suggests the best text reply based on AI technology. The service currently supports chat apps such as KakaoTalk, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, and Line.

Moreover, Fluenty hugely relies on a deep learning model, searching for patterns in text replies most frequently used by people. A virtual assistant like Bixby, with this acquisition, would look to eliminate competition from Apple and Google's voice-only assistants.

Samsung's Bixby did not receive a very warm welcome when it debuted earlier this year on the Galaxy S8 but Samsung isn't low on spirits. While last year, the company picked up Viv, the new assistant from the folks behind Siri, Fluenty is also an addition in the same direction.

For the South-Korean company, the goal is to deploy AI capabilities not just in smartphones but across all its consumer electronics. The company said its home appliances will all have smart features, such as AI and voice recognition, by 2020.