Amazon Scales Back Nova AI Models and Reorganizes Teams

Amazon is scaling back most of its Nova AI models and reorganizing AI development teams after its large language models failed to gain traction, according to Bloomberg. The company has put most models into a 'keep the lights on' state and is shifting labor and computing power to a frontier model effort led by Pieter Abbeel. The move comes a week after Amazon closed an 80 person San Francisco office focused on artificial general intelligence research.

Amazon narrows focus after Nova struggles

OpenAI has ChatGPT, Anthropic has Claude, and Google has Gemini, while Amazon's standout AI model, organized under the name Nova, is far from a household name. Bloomberg reports that Amazon is scaling back the ambitions of most Nova AI models and reorganizing teams to narrow focus on highest priority goals after its power hungry large language models turned out to be a bust. Amazon insiders told Bloomberg that most AI models have been put on ice, including text based Nova models and video and image generating models. Those models remain technically supported but receive only the bare minimum resources needed to sustain them.

Resources shift to robotics focused frontier model

Instead of broad model development, labor and computing power are being diverted toward a singular frontier model effort led by Pieter Abbeel, director of the Berkeley Robot Learning Lab. His robotics company Covariant was acquired by Amazon in 2024. At the time Abbeel joined the tech giant, Covariant's founders were working on AI models for robots, which aligns with Amazon's push to automate operations. The shift suggests Amazon is concentrating resources where it sees a clearer fit with its business.

AGI office closure and broader questions

The strategic change follows the closure of one of Amazon's key AI offices in San Francisco, a site with 80 people specializing in research on artificial general intelligence. That field is described as the supposed next level of AI development where technology obtains human level intelligence and reasoning skills. With urgent questions over whether large language models can ever bring a return on investment, let alone artificial general intelligence, Amazon may be stepping back from the AI hype cycle while it still can.

Sources: futurism.com