The American English version of Bixby Voice is struggling to understand the language and all of its nuances and may not be released next month as Samsung initially promised, sources with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday. Samsung officially announced its latest artificial intelligence (AI) assistant in the run-up to the release of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus but later said that Bixby Voice — the companion’s voice-enabled component — won’t be available at launch. The Korean edition of the service then started rolling out in Samsung’s home country in late April, with the company reiterating that the English version of Bixby will be released in the United States “later this spring,” but sources close to the firm are now saying that the assistant still isn’t finished and might not be introduced until late June at the earliest.
The Seoul-based consumer electronics manufacturer reportedly still isn’t sure when exactly will the initial build of the English-enabled Bixby Voice be ready for prime time as the company’s engineers continue struggling to perfect the service in an effort to allow it to reliably comprehend the English language with all of its grammar and syntax. In a statement provided to The Wall Street Journal earlier today, a representative of Samsung Electronics said that the tech giant is still in the process of preparing Bixby for its U.S. release but didn’t directly address reports of the company’s struggles to do so.
Some industry watchers believe that the initial version of Bixby was developed by Viv Labs, a San Jose, California-based AI startup that Samsung acquired last October for $215 million, approximately half a year before the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus were officially released. The relatively short (development) period between those two milestones might be the primary reason why the American English edition of Bixby Voice is now late to the market and it remains to be seen how long the company will take before it finishes the British English support for the service that was already confirmed as coming at a later date. An update on the availability of Bixby Voice will likely follow in the coming weeks.