How Samsung NEXT plans to make voice assistants more natural through AI

How Samsung NEXT Plans to Make Voice Assistants More Natural Through AI

It's been really interesting to see voice become a new way of interacting with devices. I think it's a very natural progression. When I think about voice, it's still very early. With the introduction of Alexa and Google's voice assistant, it's been fascinating to observe how consumers interact with devices in a new way. It's a much more natural method, but it remains somewhat stilted. You have to ask questions a certain way, and you have to say "Alexa" every time you speak a sentence. It doesn't feel completely natural yet.

This is where AI comes in. As AI continues to progress, I think we'll see a much more natural type of communication, where machines will understand us as seamlessly as humans do in conversation. That's the next leap that all these voice interfaces need to make. At Samsung, we're working on that with our Bixby assistant. However, we still need to achieve a much more natural flow of communication that isn't scripted or patterned in specific ways. Achieving a more natural interaction is essential.

If you don't ask questions in a specific way, it can become very frustrating. When my kids interact with voice assistants today, they get quite frustrated because it's not a natural way of communicating. For example, if you ask, "What's the temperature today?" it won't give you an answer unless you say "Bixby" or "Alexa" or "Hey Google" first. And if it comes back with the wrong answer, you have to repeat the sentence again, maybe in a different way, so the machine understands it. Humans don't have these limitations because we understand context, recognize who we're speaking to, and direct our conversation accordingly.

When we look at our devices, we want a natural interaction; we don't want a stilted one. That's our goal at Samsung as we continue to advance AI and natural language processing. There won't be a sudden switch where everything changes overnight; it will be more of a progression, an evolution rather than a revolution. Looking back five years from now, we might wonder why we did things a certain way. Over the next two to four years, I expect we'll continue to see significant improvements in this technology.

Keywords

• Voice Interaction
• AI
• Natural Communication
• Voice Assistants
• Bixby
• Contextual Understanding
• Natural Language Processing
• Voice Interfaces
• Evolution of Technology

FAQ

Q: What are some current limitations of voice assistants? A: Voice assistants currently require specific commands and repeated activation phrases, leading to a somewhat stilted and unnatural user experience.

Q: How is Samsung working to improve voice assistants? A: Samsung is working on their Bixby assistant to make voice interaction more natural and intuitive, reducing the need for scripted commands and improving contextual understanding.

Q: What role does AI play in the development of more natural voice interactions? A: AI, particularly advancements in natural language processing, plays a crucial role in making voice interactions more fluid and context-aware, similar to human-to-human conversation.

Q: What can we expect in the future of voice-assisted technology? A: We can expect a gradual progression towards more natural voice interactions, with significant improvements likely in the next two to four years.

Q: Will the advancements in voice assistants happen suddenly? A: No, the advancements will be more of an evolution rather than a sudden change. Progress will be continual and steady.

Q: Why do current voice assistants make errors in understanding questions? A: Current voice assistants often require questions to be phrased in a specific way and lack contextual understanding, leading to errors and repeated commands.