Amazon's AGI Team Chief Steps Down

Rohit Prasad, who led the creation of Amazon's Artificial General Intelligence team, is preparing to exit the company two years after establishing this pivotal group aimed at pioneering advanced AI models.

Amazon's Chief Executive, Andy Jassy, noted that Prasad intends to leave by year-end. In 2023, Prasad was promoted to report directly to Jassy, amid efforts to develop Amazon's 'most daring' AI systems, according to reports from Business Insider.

Under Prasad’s leadership, the Nova series of AI models was introduced, receiving acknowledgment for its resource efficiency. However, these models have yet to catch up with leading-edge solutions like OpenAI's GPT, Anthropic's Claude Opus, and Google's Gemini.

To navigate this leadership change, Amazon is organizing a fresh unit led by Peter DeSantis, Senior Vice President for Utility Computing at AWS. This new branch will handle the development of Amazon's AGI and AI models, alongside initiatives in chip technology and quantum computing.

Additionally, Andy Jassy revealed that Pieter Abbeel, who co-founded the robotics startup Covariant and joined Amazon the previous year, will head the research team focused on Amazon's leading-edge AI models.

Leadership Changes in AWS

Prasad's departure is just one among various leadership alterations at Amazon Web Services in the past year. Several high-profile departures have occurred, including Matt Wood and Vasi Philomin, who held leadership roles in AI.

In response, AWS has brought in new talent; notable additions include Julia White, formerly with Microsoft, who joins as chief marketing officer, and the recent appointments of David Richardson as VP of AgentCore, Joe Hellerstein as Vice President and Distinguished Scientist, as well as Chet Kapoor as VP of security services and observability.