Samsung mobile chief hints at extending AI partnerships

Samsung Electronics President and mobile business chief Roh Tae-moon has hinted at the tech giant’s potential partnerships with global IT firms to develop new artificial intelligence technologies for its smartphones.

Roh noted the possible partnerships at a press conference held in Malaysia on Thursday, for the launch of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S23 smartphone lineup, according to Vietnam’s Soha News and other local media outlets.

The media outlets reported the mobile chief mentioned that large-scale interactive AI services will promote the development of mobile technology, citing the California-based startup OpenAI’s advanced chatbot ChatGPT as an example.

“ChatGPT's machine learning and deep learning are showing innovations. … The language model will pave the way for Samsung to develop further,” the news coverage said, quoting Roh.

According to the reports, Roh also said that Samsung has a research and development center focused on AI development and that it is “open to collaborating with various partners to find better AI technologies in the future.”

The reports further added that Roh mentioned Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta as Samsung’s potential business partners regarding AI development.

Microsoft recently announced its third multi-billion-dollar investment in the ChatGPT creator to expand the use of the AI-powered chatbot in its products. Google introduced ChatGPT competitor Bard last week. Meanwhile, Amazon and Meta are also actively investing in the AI market.

As Samsung’s mobile head noted the ChatGPT-powered mobile services at the event, industry circles around the globe are paying keen attention to whether a smartphone with large-scale AI will come out soon.

The world's largest smartphone maker by shipments introduced its flagship AI-based platform in 2017. It has described Bixby as "fundamentally different" than other AI helpers like Apple's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana because of its deeper and more nuanced integration into the Galaxy's core applications.

An anonymous source from Samsung confirmed on Tuesday that the tech giant is “open to collaboration” with various global companies for its AI development.

The official further highlighted that the tech firm has been a good business partner with global tech giants including Microsoft and Google.

Regarding the company’s plan to introduce the ChatGPT-powered services, however, the Samsung official said, “We have not been in discussions over launching mobile services based on ChatGPT. Don’t get us wrong.”