Google’s Plan to Spread its AI Assistant Hits Samsung Roadblock
- Korean company buys startup Viv to make its own digital helper
- Android chief says phone makers ‘may want to differentiate’
The Google Pixel smartphone.
Photographer: Michael Short/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Google just debuted a digital assistant, which it hopes to place inside smartphones, watches, cars and every other imaginable internet-connected device. It’s already hit a snag.
The Alphabet Inc. division launched new smartphones last week with the artificially intelligent assistant deeply embedded. It also rolled out a speaker with the feature at its core and announced plans to let other companies tie their apps and services to the assistant.