AI Territorial War
Global information and communication technology (ICT) companies have begun a war for the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) territories. Global ICT companies threw themselves into securing their partners and preoccupying new services in various areas such as home appliances, autonomous vehicles and shopping.
In addition to global companies such as Apple, Google and Amazon, Korean companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Telecom are making efforts to open up technology for the purpose of expanding AI cooperation in relevant industries on November 14. They aim at expanding their AI territories by banding together with as many allies as possible.
Samsung Electronics plans to introduce an AI service that links smart phones with home appliances early next year with recently acquired AI platform company VIV Labs taking the lead. The company plans to develop smartphones which receive voice orders from their users and operate all home appliances connected to them on the orders.
The global IT giant’s strategy is to change the concept of smartphones into “AI secretaries” in the second half of next year. Even if a user does not download applications like music, shopping, or searches, the AI secretary automatically will be able to execute all orders.
Openness is the core of Samsung Electronics’s AI business strategy. Samsung Electronics will open VIV Labs technology to external competitors so that developers and even competitors can develop services that utilize VIV Labs' technology. Its strategy is to expand its territories as much as possible by securing a large number of AI allies.
SK Telecom started an AI territorial war in Korea with a speaker that combines AI secretary service “Who.” At present, “Who” provides music, food delivery, and simple weather information services through a speaker combined with “Who.” The company is planning to combine “Who” with various services such as voice interpretation in the future.
SK Telecom develop new services of “Who” with other people and companies. The company built a system that enables anyone to suggest ideas and commercialize them through fictitious companies called “Anyone Corporations.” In the end, “Who” is open to the whole nation so that everyone will be able to develop “Who” services.
Google will unveil its developer platform for Assistant, a voice-based AI service next month. Assistant is an AI service in the Pixel Phone, a flagship smartphone of Google and Google Home, a speaker. In the future, Google is expected to include Assistant in its new business under development now such as autonomous vehicles. The global search giant plans to develop Assistant into an AI platform in the future. Assistant is powerful in that it is based on Google's search capabilities.
Since an AI platform is voice-based, it is not about listing thousands of search results, but giving one right answer to a question. Experts say that Google's big data capabilities will make Assistant a more powerful platform. It is Google's confidence that if powerful Assistant is combined with ideas of a lot of developers, the AI service will be able to display its ultra-powerful capabilities.
Apple is also planning to secure an AI platform leadership by opening up Siri, its representative AI service. Apple already came up with the first smartphone AI service in 2011. The company recently set up a research lab in Canada to develop an automotive OS and autonomous drive technology. According to Apple’s plan, an autonomous drive car currently under development will be loaded with an OS being developed by Apple so that a driver of the car will be able to use Siri in the car.
Amazon applied Alexa, a voice-based AI technology, to a speaker named “Echo.” The speaker is able to build a personalized AI platform by grasping shopping propensities of individual users acquired through Amazon.com. Personalized shopping ads through Alexa, and ordering through AI. The internet shopping giant is expanding its AI territories with a focus on shopping which is Amazon's most powerful business model.
"Most global ICT companies are already expanding their service areas by linking various AI services to smartphones among others," an ICT industry expert said. “Recently, they opened AI platforms to secure partners in all industries including the shopping, music and autonomous vehicle industries, the AI platform competition is gradually spreading to a territorial expansion war through the maximization of allies.”