Amazon shutters AGI lab to focus on frontier model initiative
Amazon is making big changes to its AI strategy. It's shutting down the AGI Lab (which started in 2024 after bringing in talent from Adept) and letting go of some staff.
Instead of spreading resources across many projects, Amazon wants to focus on one major frontier-model initiative that can keep pace with industry rivals.
Amazon deprecates generative projects consolidates teams
Several generative AI projects (including text, image, and video models) are being deprecated. High-end Nova models like Premier, Omni, Reel, and Canvas will only stay active for current clients but won't get new features.
Meanwhile, engineering teams are coming together under Frontier Model Research (FMR), led by AI roboticist Pieter Abbeel. Their goal? To launch Amazon's next-gen foundation model at the annual re:Invent conference.