Galaxy users to get a Siri of their own: Samsung buys Viv, an AI developed by the creators of Apple's voice assistant

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Samsung has joined the race to develop an artificially intelligent assistant for its gadgets after buying the firm behind Apple's Siri.

The South Korean tech firm announced its plans to buy Viv Labs, which helped to develop the iPhone's voice assisted software.

According to Samsung, it wants to incorporate the Californian firm's Viv AI assistant into its Galaxy smartphones and expand voice assistant services to home appliances and wearable technology devices. 

Samsung has announced plans to buy Viv Labs, which helped to develop the iPhone's voice assisted program. The South Korean tech giant will incorporate the Viv platform into its Galaxy smartphones (Galaxy Note 7 pictured) and other appliances

Technology firms are locked in an increasingly heated race to make AI good enough for consumers to interact with their devices more naturally, especially via voice control.

While Google is widely considered to be the leader in AI, others including Amazon.com, Apple and Microsoft have also launched their own offerings including voice-powered digital assistants.

Samsung, the world's top smartphone maker, is also hoping to differentiate its devices, from phones to fridges, by incorporating AI.

The financial terms of the deal have yet to be disclosed, but the acquisition of Viv could help the Korean firm shore up its competitiveness. 

Google's new Pixel smartphones, released with the US firm's voice-powered digital assistant, threatens Samsung and other smartphone makers who are largely reliant on the Android operating platform.

'Viv brings in a very unique technology to allow us to have an open system where any third-party service and content providers (can) add their services to our devices' interfaces,' Rhee In-jong, Samsung's executive vice president, told Reuters in an interview.

Samsung joins a number of tech firms locked in an increasingly heated race to make AI good enough for consumers to interact with their devices more naturally, especially via voice (stock image)

The executive said Samsung needs to 'really revolutionise' how its devices operate, moving towards using voice rather than simply touch. 'We can't innovate using only in-house technology,' Rhee said.

Viv chief executive and co-founder Dag Kittlaus, a Siri co-creator, and other top managers at the firm will continue managing the business independently following the acquisition.

Rhee told Reuters Samsung will continue to look for acquisitions to bolster its AI and other software capabilities, without naming any targets.