Back in November 2024, Samsung introduced the next generation of its virtual assistant, Bixby, with AI capabilities in China. It can respond to complex commands made in natural language. Now, it seems the South Korean giant has integrated the DeepSeek-R1 AI model with Bixby.
In case you are unfamiliar with DeepSeek, it is a Chinese company that creates powerful artificial intelligence (AI) models. Lately, it has been in the news because of its latest efficient and cost-effective model — the R1 model. It was trained at a fraction of the cost of similar models from other companies like OpenAI.
Ice Universe shows off DeepSeek AI working on Bixby
A well-known tipster, Ice Universe, posted a video on his X account showing the Bixby’s response in Chinese (probably on one of the Galaxy S25 lineup devices) generated from the DeepSeek-R1 model. Users can identify the AI model at the end of the response. However, we could not verify since we don’t have access to the Chinese unit of the Galaxy S25.
Samsung China version Bixby has been connected to DeepSeek R1, awesome! pic.twitter.com/cBIVKzaRAh
— ICE UNIVERSE (@UniverseIce) March 1, 2025
Notably, Samsung is not the only brand that has integrated the DeepSeek-R1 model with its devices in China. Other brands like Infinix, Honor, and Oppo will also reportedly offer DeepSeek-R1 integration on their devices.
DeepSeek AI in Bixby could be China-exclusive
It appears that the integration of the DeepSeek-R1 AI model with Bixby will be limited to China only.
With the Galaxy S25, we already have Gemini AI integrated into the device directly. You can even access Gemini by long pressing the power button — it’s now the default setting (Of course, you can change it to Bixby too).
Note that Bixby is still there on Galaxy S25 devices — Gemini has not replaced the Bixby. What’s interesting here is that both Gemini and Bixby are triggered depending on the query, reports Android Authority. For example, Gemini handles restaurant-related queries, while Bixby manages Samsung Calendar tasks.
