Samsung said Thursday it has agreed to acquire Oxford Semantic Technologies, a U.K.-based startup with knowledge graph technology.
The South Korean tech giant said that combining such technology with its AI on the device like those of the Galaxy S24 Series It will offer “hyper-personalized” user experiences while personal data will remain secure on the device. The company did not share details of the deal.
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Knowledge graph technology stores information as an interconnected network of related ideas and processes data in a similar way to how humans acquire, remember, recall and reason about knowledge, Samsung said.
This improves understanding of how people use products and services, enabling faster information retrieval and recommendation, the company said.
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Oxford Semantic Technologies, founded in 2017, offers its technology in the form of artificial intelligence engines called RDFox that can be applied to devices to enhance their on-device AI capabilities, Samsung said, adding that it has been working with the startup since 2018.
The graphics offered by these engines integrate information and context from various services and applications, Samsung said, allowing it to create a personalized user experience by becoming increasingly familiar with users’ preferences and usage. The South Korean tech giant said it plans to apply the engine to its mobile devices, TVs and home appliances.
The introduction of Galaxy AI gave a much-needed boost to sales of the Galaxy S series, Samsung’s latest launch, as smartphone hardware improvements reached their limits, which has hampered growth in the premium sector in recent years. AI can be that new growth driver, so Samsung is looking to further improve Galaxy AI.
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However, while the popularity of AI is real, it is still unclear what kind of business models companies can find in it. Subscription is a possibility, but Samsung will have to justify it with content and services. Furthermore, AI improvements inevitably require data collection, which raises security concerns. On-device AI, by processing data on the device rather than going through the cloud, has been proposed as a solution to that concern. And who offers more devices than Samsung?