The archive · AI & Models · Strategic decision · 2012–2016
Viv Labs sells to Samsung in 2016 after betting its AI could write its own code
Viv Labs, founded in 2012 by Siri's creators, bet an open assistant that writes its own programs could go anywhere; Samsung agreed to buy it in October 2016.
Viv Labs
What the business is
Viv Labs builds a next-generation AI assistant platform, an "intelligent interface for everything," whose dynamic program generation composes capabilities across apps and services on the fly.
How it started
After Apple acquired Siri in 2010, its creators Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham left Apple and founded Viv Labs in 2012, betting the next assistant had to be more than a fixed feature list. Kittlaus wrote on TechCrunch in 2012 that "Siri Is Only The Beginning" and in 2014 predicted a "Cambrian Explosion in AI," describing a system in which developers can build any experience and the assistant writes programs for requests it has never heard.
What happened
In May 2016 Viv gave its first public demo at TechCrunch's Disrupt NY conference, where Kittlaus said users describe what they want and the system builds it, with TechCrunch billing Viv as a more extensible, powerful version of Siri. In October 2016 Samsung's mobile team agreed to acquire the company so Viv could serve Samsung platforms; the price was not disclosed, and Samsung SVP Jacopo Lenzi pointed beyond phones to wearables, home appliances and the SmartThings ecosystem.
How it ended up
Samsung announced the acquisition agreement on 2016-10-05, with Viv to keep operating as an independent company providing services to Samsung and its platforms. The deal gave Samsung an assistant that could rival Siri and Google Assistant, even though Viv had not yet launched, and gave Viv what Kittlaus said it always wanted: distribution across Samsung's roughly 500 million devices shipped a year.
Background
After Apple acquired Siri in 2010, its creators Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham left Apple and founded Viv Labs in 2012. Their bet was that the next assistant could not be a fixed feature list: Viv's back end used "dynamic program generation" so the system could write its own code to handle new tasks, and its open architecture let developers plug in any experience. Kittlaus framed the ambition in TechCrunch essays, from "Siri Is Only The Beginning" in 2012 to a coming "Cambrian Explosion in AI" in 2014.
Viv gave its first public demo at TechCrunch's Disrupt NY conference in May 2016, where Kittlaus argued users would describe what they want rather than script it, and TechCrunch billed Viv as a more extensible, powerful version of Siri. By October 2016 the company had not yet launched a product, but Samsung's mobile team agreed to acquire it so Viv could provide services across Samsung platforms. Samsung SVP Jacopo Lenzi said the interest spanned the whole device range, from mobile and wearables to home appliances and SmartThings.
Samsung announced the acquisition agreement on 2016-10-05; the price was not disclosed, and Viv was to keep operating as an independent company serving Samsung. TechCrunch noted the deal handed Samsung an assistant that could compete with Siri and Google Assistant, with the caveat that Viv's real-world performance was untested, and Kittlaus cited the distribution math: Samsung ships roughly 500 million devices a year, which made it the partner for an assistant built on ubiquity.
What has to be true
- Siri's creators had already sold one assistant to Apple in 2010, so Viv's 2012 follow-up from the same trio started with credibility the field rarely grants.
- Dynamic program generation let Viv handle requests it had never seen, so growth did not depend on hand-coding features; an open developer layer could scale to thousands of capabilities.
- Samsung was wrestling for control of its own software: Google was becoming a direct competitor, the Note 7 recall hurt momentum, and owning an assistant layer reduced reliance on Google.
- The deal happened before launch: Samsung bought the team, the technology and a future platform, while Viv traded independence for the distribution it said it could not build alone.
What can be applied
Technology alone did not get Viv users: Samsung bought an unlaunched assistant because it needed its own AI layer across roughly 500 million devices a year — distribution was the scarce asset.
Aftermath
As of the 2016-10-05 announcement, the last date established in this entry's sources, Viv Labs had agreed to be acquired by Samsung and was not yet launched. Under the deal Viv would continue operating as an independent company providing services to Samsung and its platforms, with Samsung's release calling out mobile, wearables and home appliances, and Kittlaus describing the shared vision as moving toward a "post-app world." The sources record no later milestones for Viv as an independent company, so the story stops at the acquisition agreement.
Sources
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