Samsung Research in China is part of a series on the people and innovations behind the democratization of mobile AI
As Samsung continues to pioneer premium mobile AI experiences, we visited Samsung research centers around the world to learn how Galaxy AI enables more users to maximize their potential. Galaxy AI now supports 16 languages, so more people can expand their language capabilities, even offline, thanks to on-device translation in features like Instant Translation, Interpreter, Note Assistant, and Navigation Assistant. But what does the development of AI language entail? Last time we visited Vietnam to learn how to prepare the data used to train AI models. This time, we’re looking at how the teams made Galaxy AI a unique offering for both mainland China and Hong Kong.
The rapid growth of AI tools using large language models (LLM) has been observed around the world and China is no exception. With Baidu’s ERNIE Bot and Meitu’s MiracleVision emerging as popular options in China, Samsung R&D Institute China has partnered with both companies to help develop Galaxy AI features for the country.
The Samsung R&D Institute China in Guangzhou (SRC-G) and Beijing (SRC-B) worked to ensure that Mandarin speakers in China had the same Galaxy AI experience as other users around the world, even though the technology backend looks different. The team leveraged dedicated Chinese dialect resources from external partners and created a unique Galaxy AI solution for China.
“We have the advantage of combining global best practices with local Chinese practices, as well as creating new features and constantly improving them through daily communication with Chinese consumers,” says Hairong Zhang, software innovation group leader at SRC. -G. “With the rich development experience of the Galaxy S24, I am proud of how our team cooperated with local Chinese AI companies such as Baidu and Meitu to provide an impactful solution in China.”
At first, teams had to acclimate to each other’s work styles and address initial information asymmetry issues. Daijun Zhang, director of SRC-B, established a working group to ensure the project followed the development schedule and moved quickly toward its goals.
Thanks to the Beijing team’s experience in large-scale model generation and successful collaboration with external partners, all generative AI functions were successfully launched in China. The result is a solution that has local relevance and market-specific features, such as Touch to Search.
Expanding Chinese to develop the Cantonese dialect
Chinese for mainland China (Mandarin) came to Galaxy AI with the launch of the Galaxy S24 in January 2024. But Samsung R&D Institute China’s work was far from done. The team was also tasked with developing the AI model for Hong Kong Chinese (Cantonese), a dialect that built on work already done for Mandarin but brings a whole new set of linguistic features to address.
In developing Cantonese, China’s R&D team faced significant cultural challenges that it needed to respond to in order to fully support its market position. The first cultural phenomenon is the two sets of writing and speaking systems. Hong Kongers use Mandarin-like grammar and expressions when writing, but adopt a completely different colloquial grammar when communicating on a daily basis. Additionally, Cantonese has nine pronunciation tones, while Mandarin has four.
Another cultural phenomenon is that the Cantonese dialect itself develops over the times. Add to that the fact that people often mix Cantonese and English in conversations, making it clear why it was complicated to create test cases and validate language packs.
“Cantonese is a very unique dialect that varies in different regions where Cantonese is spoken,” says Jing Li, who is leading the operation to test the AI solution in Cantonese. “Some of the slang, phrases, vocabulary and even tones vary from place to place. “Therefore, we carried out a large amount of work to verify Hong Kong-specific data, as well as to correct tens of thousands of relevant test cases.”
With these complexities in mind, SRC-G and SRC-B worked together to support deep code mixing using a combination of Cantonese and English for speech recognition, simultaneously supporting spoken and written expressions in machine translation and reflecting current pronunciations in synthesis. voice.
Cultural impact of communication
When Galaxy AI launched the Chinese (Hong Kong) language option, customer feedback showed that the hard work of Samsung’s R&D team was justified.
For both mainland China and Hong Kong, Samsung’s Galaxy AI activities show the importance of a global brand having a local presence and experiences, as well as the power of open collaboration with other organizations. In Hong Kong, Cantonese is a key part of the cultural identity of those who live there. That’s why it was so important for the team to get the AI language model right.
“Language and communication are crucial in all regions and in all walks of life,” said Henry Wat, head of engineering group at Samsung Electronics Hong Kong. “No matter the language, any tool that helps people communicate is invaluable. “I think our work is meaningful.”
In the next episode of The Learning Curve, we’ll head to Brazil to see how a team works across cultures and borders to bring Galaxy AI to more people.
