Jun 12, 2024 14:00:00

Samsung to set up new AI-focused research center headed by former Apple executive

Samsung is reportedly planning to merge two of its North American research centers specializing in AI research and appoint a former Apple executive to head the new AI research center.

Samsung Taps Ex-Apple Executive Murat Akbacak to Lead North America AI Center - Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-11/samsung-taps-apple-siri-veteran-to-lead-north-american-ai-group

Samsung is combining two North American research centers focused on artificial intelligence technology and hiring an ex-Apple Inc. executive to run the new group https://t.co/1gmTTCUIRy

— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) June 11, 2024

According to a Bloomberg report, Samsung has notified employees that it plans to merge its AI-focused research centers in Toronto, Canada and Mountain View, California, USA, to create a new organization called the North American AI Center sometime in the third week of June 2024.

According to internal documents obtained by Bloomberg, Samsung is merging its two AI centers to improve operations and streamline efficiency, though it is unclear what will become of the two offices at the time of writing.

Bloomberg points out, 'The move is the latest sign that Samsung, one of the world's largest technology companies, is aggressively investing in AI. For device makers like Samsung and Apple, AI features are seen as a way to encourage consumers to upgrade their technology more frequently.'

The new AI center will be led by former Apple executive Murat Akbackak, who, according to Samsung internal documents, was 'responsible for defining and executing the strategy for Apple's personal assistant, Siri, with a focus on advancing personalization, contextualization, conversational and multimodal AI.'

Bloomberg has reached out to Apple and Samsung for comment on the report, but has not received a response at the time of writing.

During

WWDC24 , Apple announced a new personal AI called ' Apple Intelligence ' that can be used on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Apple Intelligence tightly integrates the OS with Siri and ChatGPT, allowing Siri to do what users want more smartly and seamlessly than ever before.

Although Apple has tightly integrated its operating system with OpenAI technology, much of Apple Intelligence was designed in-house by Apple, and Akbakkuk was not only involved in the development of the new Apple Intelligence, but also worked on Microsoft's voice recognition assistant.

Meanwhile, Samsung is supporting AI features using Gemini, a chatbot developed by Google, but Apple is also planning to use Google's Gemini for Apple Intelligence, a company executive said.

Apple executives express intention to integrate Google's AI 'Gemini' into Apple products - GIGAZINE

Toronto, Canada, is a hotbed of AI research and a major source of talent for major technology companies. Bloomberg cited Meta's facial recognition algorithm, Google's photo app, and smartphone voice recognition technology as examples of AI technologies that originate in Canada.