Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly permeating daily life, transforming from mere additional features into systems capable of managing routines, understanding user habits, and operating automatically across various devices. In this rapidly evolving landscape, Samsung asserts its position that security is no longer just an option, but a fundamental prerequisite for AI to be widely accepted and adopted by society.
Key Points
- Samsung prioritizes security as the primary foundation for AI’s widespread acceptance and usage, not as an add-on layer.
- The concept of ‘trust-by-design’ emphasizes transparency, user control, and predictability of AI behavior.
- Samsung’s on-device AI strategy aims to minimize personal data processing in the cloud to protect privacy.
- Samsung Knox and Knox Matrix are security pillars that protect the device ecosystem from the chipset level to inter-device connectivity.
- AI security is not just technical, but also includes clarity of function and behavior to build user trust.
Security as a Foundation: Not Just an Add-on Layer
At the Samsung Tech Forum at CES 2026, the company underscored that user trust in AI is not built on marketing claims alone. Instead, this trust stems from systems that are proven to be secure, transparent, and provide adequate user control. This approach places security as a core element from the initial design phase (foundation), rather than merely adding it at the final stage.
Trust-by-Design: Transparency and Full Control in Users’ Hands
Samsung champions the concept of ‘trust-by-design,’ a philosophy where AI is designed to be fully understandable and predictable by its users. Transparency is a crucial aspect, ranging from clarity on where user data is processed to marking which features truly utilize AI. The goal is to avoid the perception of AI as a mysterious ‘black box’ system. By providing clear controls, Samsung strives to ensure that users remain the primary decision-makers in their interactions with AI technology, rather than simply being objects of automated processes.
On-Device AI: A Key Strategy for Privacy Protection
One of the pillars of Samsung’s strategy in safeguarding user security and privacy is by prioritizing ‘on-device’ AI processing. This means that user personal data will be processed directly on the device whenever possible. Cloud-based processing will still be used, but selectively and only when greater performance or processing scale is highly necessary. This strategy reflects Samsung’s effort to balance advanced AI technological innovation with strict user privacy protection. By minimizing the transfer of personal data to cloud servers, the risks of data leakage and misuse can be mitigated from the outset.
Knox and Knox Matrix: Pervasive Security Across the Ecosystem
With the advent of AI across Samsung’s device lines, from smartphones, televisions, wearables, to home appliances, Samsung recognizes that security can no longer be handled in isolation. Samsung Knox has long been a multi-layered security foundation protecting devices from the chipset level to the operating system. Now, Knox Matrix extends this protection to the ecosystem level. Through Knox Matrix, devices within the Samsung ecosystem will authenticate and monitor each other. Each device acts as an integral part of a collective defense system, ensuring that a vulnerability at one point does not automatically endanger the entire ecosystem.
Addressing the Challenges of Misinformation and AI Misuse
Samsung also proactively highlights the various risks inherent in AI technology, including the potential for spreading misinformation and misuse. The company argues that solutions to address these risks must be built through the implementation of more secure and controlled technologies. Security in the context of AI refers not only to technical aspects but also to the clarity of AI’s functions and behavior. Secure AI must be able to operate consistently, predictably, and be easily understood by users, thus avoiding a sense of loss of control.
Convenience Without Sacrificing Trust
Discussions at CES 2026 also touched upon consumer behavior realities: convenience remains a primary determinant in the adoption of new technologies. However, Samsung emphasizes that without a sense of security and trust, the convenience offered by AI technology will not last. Therefore, Samsung positions security as an essential element that allows AI to continue providing practical benefits and maximum convenience without sacrificing users’ fundamental trust.
