Samsung hires Apple veteran who designed Siri hoping it gives massive boost to in-house AI

Samsung Electronics is streamlining its North American AI research efforts and has decided to merge two of its research centres in a bid to focus all of its efforts on developing its own, in-house artificial intelligence systems.

The company has announced the creation of a new entity called the North America AI Centre. This combines the teams in Toronto, Canada and Mountain View, California, and should improve operational efficiency.

Samsung has also hired former Apple executive Murat Akbacak to lead the newly formed division, as per a report by Bloomberg.

All of this was revealed in an internal communication note earlier this week.

At Apple, Akbacak played a key role in shaping the strategy for Siri, focusing on personalisation, and contextualisation. He was also crucial for the various breakthroughs Apple made in their own conversational and multimodal AI.

Samsung’s gambit comes at a time when Apple has made some significant strides in expanding its AI capabilities, as it showcased at this year’s WWDC.

During Apple’s recent AI announcement, the Cupertino-based tech giant emphasised particularly on how they have been able to make Siri more personalised and have improved its contextual understanding of user requests.

Furthermore, the company introduced features to assist users in organising notifications across its iPhone, iPad, and Mac operating systems, all under the umbrella of Apple Intelligence.

And even though Apple Intelligence uses OpenAI technology for its chatbot, the majority of its features that Apple highlighted at WWC24 were all developed in-house.

In contrast, Samsung relies heavily on Alphabet’s Google Gemini to support its Galaxy AI’s capabilities.

Toronto has emerged as a hub for AI research and talent, with technologies originating from Canada playing integral roles in various tech applications, including facial recognition algorithms, photo apps, and voice recognition systems.

Samsung’s consolidation efforts are a great example of the increasing aggressiveness of major technology companies in a bid to win what is being called the AI space.

For industry giants like Samsung and Apple, advanced AI features will prove to be pivotal in encouraging consumer technology upgrades and driving market competitiveness.