Amazon (AMZN.US) lays off staff to the AGI department to focus on AI R&D priorities

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Amazon (AMZN.US) is layoffs in its general artificial intelligence (AGI) research department, according to reports on Wednesday. The department is responsible for developing the core models that drive generic autonomous AI agents. This is the latest part of a series of smaller staff reduction actions within the company following large-scale layoffs in January of this year.

General artificial intelligence is a hypothetical AI system. Its level of intelligence surpasses that of humans, and it can learn, evolve, and operate independently. Currently, most of the world's top AI companies are committed to developing similar systems with a view to applying them to solve complex problems.

The team previously launched the Amazon Nova Act tool, which enables companies to build AI agents that can browse the web independently and complete daily online tasks without human intervention.

In response, an Amazon spokesperson said, “We've been building large-scale AI models for years, and this has always been one of our most important business directions. We're further focusing on the projects that matter most to our customers to move faster on what really matters. This focus also meant that some difficult decisions needed to be made, including the elimination of some positions within the AGI organization.”

Rohit Prasad, the core executive responsible for overseeing the AGI business, left his job at the end of last year, and David Luann, head of the AGI laboratory, left office in February of this year. In December of last year, AGI-related work was integrated into a larger department headed by Senior Vice President Peter DeSantis, which also covered chip development and quantum computing business.

According to an online forum employee post on Wednesday, Adib Shana, vice president of general artificial intelligence data services, and Vishal Sharma, vice president of AGI information, all had employees affected by layoffs. However, as of press release, the exact scale of this layoff has not yet been confirmed.

Despite Amazon's commitment to invest up to 200 billion US dollars in capital expenses in AI and cloud infrastructure, the company continues to lay off employees throughout its business to streamline management levels and optimize resource allocation. As part of an overall plan to cut about 30,000 jobs (a significant portion of which stemmed from post-pandemic recruitment expansion), Amazon has laid off a total of about 16,000 employees this year.