Aside from launching its own Artificial Intelligent (AI) assistant, Samsung will unveil male and female versions of this voice controlled assistant named Bixby and Kestra respectively.

The new two AIs will bring support for mobile payments by voice. Samsung has filed AI-related trademark applications in South Korea and the European Union, which mention the two names and some variations of it.

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The trademark application described the AI assistants as a computer that enables hands-free use of a mobile phone via voice recognition as well as a computer software that will process voice commands, according to BGR. The documents also stated that smart assistants had some name variations such as Bix-by and Bix-bee, among others. 

In addition, Bixby and Kestra names are directly or indirectly related to Star Trek, which connects to the Galaxy brand.

Moreover, the Samsung Galaxy S8 will offer a new payment feature called Bixby Pay, allowing users to make payments using voice commands, iTech Post reported. The company claims that the AI assistant will understand and reply to normal human speech, which will be another new feature for the next Galaxy smartphone. 

There has been no official statement yet from Samsung about Bixby and Kestra, but the smart assistants will probably debut when the Galaxy S8 is released in the early part of 2017 during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The latest news on Samsung’s AI comes after the South Korean tech giant acquired a California-based startup Viv Labs. The startup is known for developing intelligent interfaces that can be applied to everything, such as Siri before Apple acquired the technology for its devices.

The Galaxy S8 may include a dedicated button on the side that will launch an intelligent assistant powered by Viv's technology. Viv would represent a significant advancement over Samsung's previous digital assistant, S Voice.

TagsSamsung, samsung galaxy s8, galaxy s8, AI, Artificial Intelligence, male and femail voice assistants, Samsung Galaxy S8 Bixby Kestra, Bixby and Kestra, Bixby Pay, mobile payment, S Voice, Viv Labs