Amazon's artificial intelligence initiatives will undergo significant changes as Rohit Prasad, who has been instrumental in the development of the company's Nova AI models, will exit the company by the end of the year. This announcement follows the recent unveiling of the Nova 2 models at Amazon's re:Invent conference, which highlighted the company's ongoing efforts to compete with AI leaders like OpenAI and Google.
In a memo released on Wednesday, Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, appointed Peter DeSantis to lead a newly formed organization that integrates Nova and model research teams with custom silicon and quantum computing initiatives. DeSantis, a veteran with 27 years at the company, has previously spearheaded major technical advancements, including the launch of Amazon EC2 and the acquisition of Annapurna Labs.
Additionally, Pieter Abbeel, an AI researcher who joined Amazon last year, will head the frontier model research team within the AGI organization while continuing his role in the robotics team. This reorganization is seen as a crucial step in consolidating Amazon's key AI technologies at a pivotal moment for the sector, as noted by Jassy.