Bixby is Samsung’s artificial intelligence service available on the firm’s latest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus. Through voice commands, it can answer questions, play music, turn on a flashlight and take a selfie.

Samsung said users can also ask Bixby to complete complex tasks, such as “remind me to pick up milk at the grocery store,” or “find photos I took in Spain and create an album called ‘Vacation.’”

“We want to offer a truly multimodal experience, so that users can interact with their phones in many different ways -- through sight, touch, typing or voice -- all of the most natural ways to interact with the world, available on your smartphone,” said Rhee In-jong, Samsung Mobile’s chief technology officer.

Samsung said Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus users in the US can start using Bixby’s voice service immediately by updating the application to the latest software version. The firm said it will expand this service with additional languages and devices in the near future.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)