We've heard a lot of talk about Google Assistant since its launch aboard the Google Pixel phones, and since then it seems everyone in the smartphone space is jumping on the AI Assistant bandwagon. However, so far it seems Pixel devices are the ONLY devices equipped with Google's own AI, which considering Google's tendency to build features and platforms with OEM adoption in mind is a little odd.

Well now it seems that the first non-Google, non-Pixel handset to make use of Google Assistant might be none other than the LG G6, if new reports are accurate. The word comes via Korean news source Business Korea.

"LG Electronics is strengthening cooperation with global companies, such as Google and Amazon, as part of its efforts to promote its sluggish smartphone business," reads the report. Citing unnamed insider industry sources, it says that LG "is actively seeking to technologically collaborate with Google and Amazon for its new products to be launched this year."

"There are rumors that the G6, which is to be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, Spain, on February 26, will be featured with Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) voice assistant service “Google Assistant.” 

It's claimed that rather than develop its own AI system, as Samsung is doing with Bixby for the Galaxy S8, LG would prefer to adopt Google's pre-made Google Assistant. However, it seems unlikely it would be as closely integrated into the phone as on the Pixel series, where it is directly coupled with Android and capable of some unique features and capabilities. Google is likely to want to keep such features exclusive to its own stable, but it's thought that there may be  some cooperation between Google and LG across both its smartphone and smartwatch products in 2017, a move which would echo Google and LG's combined efforts on the Nexus projects in the past.