Amazon has reportedly laid off employees from its artificial general intelligence (AGI) division even as the company continues to spend heavily to expand its AI business. It is still unclear how many employees were affected or which parts of the AGI division saw layoffs. The AGI division is responsible for developing Amazon’s AI models and also includes teams working on custom AI chips and quantum computing. Some employees working on AI model customisation and post-training were among those who lost their jobs, as per LinkedIn posts.
Explaining the decision, an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC, “This is a fast-moving space, and we’re sharpening our focus on the initiatives that matter most for customers, so we can move faster on what counts.” “That focus means some difficult decisions, including eliminating some roles within parts of our AGI organization, even as we continue to invest in the areas most important to our customers’ future.”
Amazon has been reducing its workforce over the past few years after hiring heavily during the pandemic. Since October, the company has cut more than 30,000 jobs across different teams, reports CNBC. Smaller rounds of layoffs have also continued in recent months.
Despite the layoffs, AI is one of Amazon’s biggest priorities. The AGI division plays an important role in the company’s efforts to compete with rivals such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. For those unaware, AGI refers to AI systems that can perform most tasks at a level similar to or better than humans.
Amazon said its focus on AI has not changed. The spokesperson said that the company has been developing large AI models for years and “it remains one of the most important things we’re working on.”
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Last month, Amazon’s AGI lead Peter DeSantis admitted that the company’s AI models “haven’t been at the very frontier for the very largest, most demanding workloads.”
Amazon is expected to announce its second-quarter earnings next week. The company has already said it plans to spend about $200 billion this year on capital investments, with a major focus on expanding its AI infrastructure.