Amazon's AI chief Rohit Prasad departs after 12-year stint
What's the story
Amazon has announced a major leadership change in its artificial intelligence (AI) division. Rohit Prasad, the head of Amazon's Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) group, will be leaving the company next year. The announcement was made by CEO Andy Jassy on Wednesday. As part of this transition, Peter DeSantis, a senior vice president at Amazon Web Services (AWS), will lead a new team focused on advanced AI models, chip development, and quantum computing.
Departure details
Rohit Prasad's journey at Amazon and his departure
Prasad joined Amazon in 2013 and was instrumental in the development of Alexa, the company's voice assistant. He also led the launch of Nova AI models and became head of the AGI team in 2023. Prasad recently said that none of the AI benchmarks are "real" and that "the evals are frankly getting noisy, and they're not showing the real power of these models."
Leadership transition
Peter DeSantis to lead new AI-focused organization
DeSantis, a 27-year Amazon veteran and former SVP for AWS, will head the new AI-focused organization. This team will be responsible for Amazon's AI models such as Nova, silicon development, and quantum computing. The move comes as part of Amazon's commitment to enterprise AI use and its desire to focus on these emerging areas with DeSantis at the helm.
Strategic focus
Amazon's AI strategy and investments
Amazon's renewed focus on AI comes as the company looks to bolster its position in the race, possibly more through investments than its own innovations. Last month, AWS announced a significant investment in the US government's AI infrastructure. The company is also said to be considering a $10 billion investment in OpenAI and has already invested $8 billion in Anthropic, an OpenAI rival.