From the rise of Google Voice's Siri and Amazon's Alexa, to virtual Youtubers, or VTubers, such as Nyanners, Projekt Melody, Kizuna Ai, Kiryu Coco, and others, the Digital Age have spawned numerous ways to connect people to the digital realm.
And with that said, Samsung, one of the world's largest smartphone manufacturers, were rumored that they wanted to grab the opportunity of having a digital assistant that can be up par with Siri and Alexa while grasping the concept of materializing it on 2D or 3D like the aforementioned VTubers.
The plan was simple - replace their existing Voice Assistant, Bixby, with a new one that is more up-close and 'physical.' This is in a form of an unofficial 3D Virtual Assistant for the company named Sam.
Despite being unofficial and being rumored as a replacement for the voice assistant who was first introduced in both Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+, the world of internet just went head over heels for Sam, as they offer her lots and lots of fan arts, including ones that are 'not safe from work,' or NSFW.
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Introducing 'Sam'
There are no statements coming from Samsung regarding the rumored digital assistant. However, according to a Twitter post by @SinisterSh0t, Sam was created by Lightfarm Studios, a 3D animation studio that are based in Brazil, Singapore, and the United States.
The said project was for a collaboration between the animation studio and Cheil Worldwide Inc, a marketing agency under the Samsung Group.
Base on the design shown by the studio through their website, which was later deleted but then later archived, 'Sam' sports a short bob and has the face of several VTubers that we usually see - big bright wide eyes, button nose, a small mouth, all in a small-sized head.
She wears a black long-sleeved polo shirt with a "Samsung Galaxy" written on top of its right breast pocket, tucked in a pair of slim jeans, and black corporate slip-on shoes with no socks on. Her only wearable accessory is a pink wristwatch.
On the sample poses, she often holds a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. According to an article by Polygon.com, she likes to jam the tunes of the said smartphone as well as browsing apps and texting to her friends.
According the studio, the character model for Sam was rendered to 3D from an existing 2D version while thinking of its modern aesthetics and a wider range of expressions and poses.
"The character, which already had a 2D existing version, underwent a complete redesign to return to social networks in a 3D version, much more modern, exciting, and with many more expressions, poses, and different textures," the animation studio said.
Sam quickly skyrocketed after her sample poses where quickly uploaded on Twitter by @louxtenyaiida yesterday, June 1st, which became viral afterwards.
Enter the Fan Arts
After Sam had gone viral, the internet community summoned their inner 'artistic' talents to create tons of fan arts regarding the unofficial Samsung assistant. These fan arts, mostly adult-themed, flooded the "r/rule34" sub-reddit.
According to the Urban Dictionary, a "Rule 34" is when everything that is exists within the world of Internet has a corresponding fan-made adult-themed or pornographic content. This applied on subject that are non-erotic to begin with and people create fan art of that subject engaging in sexual conduct or behavior.
The 'rule' spared no one, from "My Little Pony" to "Among Us" to "Overwatch" to "South Park," which even had an episode regarding it. Sam is now the latest entity to be hit with the said 'rule' after said fan arts became viral on the internet, just hours after the viral Tweet.
Despite of the positive, and somewhat smutty, response from the internet community regarding her, Samsung did not release any statements regarding Sam or any verifications regarding the rumors of them making a virtual assistant for their smartphones that will replace Bixby.
The last time the company made an announcement regarding it was that of NEON, an AI-generated virtual assistant made by its STAR Labs. It was first unveiled at the CES 2020.
According to an article by sammobile.com, Samsung STAR Labs Chief Executtive Officer Pranav Mistry said in a Tweet that NEON will not be available to the public, meaning that intergrating it to every Samsung smartphone, including the Samsung Galaxy S21, will not be possible.
He also said that NEON will be used only for B2B, or Business-to-Business, communications.
Even its creator, Lightfarm Studios, did not further release anything regarding Sam after they deleted the webpage dedicated to her.
Regardless, the internet community loved Sam, and hoping that the smartphone company will make its unofficial virtual assistant a reality.
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