Amazon on Wednesday cut jobs in its artificial general intelligence (AGI) group, marking the latest in a series of smaller reductions across the company since a much larger round in January.
The cuts come as the e-commerce and cloud computing giant sharpens its focus on what matters most for customers, according to an Amazon spokesperson.
"We've been building large AI models for several years, and it remains one of the most important things we're working on," said the spokesperson. "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."
Employees under Adeeb Shanaa, vice president of artificial general intelligence data services, and Vishal Sharma, vice president of AGI information, reported being impacted by the cuts on online forums on Wednesday. The full scope of the reductions could not immediately be learned.
The cuts follow significant leadership turnover in Amazon's AGI division. Rohit Prasad, a top executive overseeing AGI, left the company at the end of last year. David Luan, head of Amazon's AGI Lab, departed in February. In December, AGI work was consolidated under senior vice president Peter DeSantis as part of a larger group that also includes silicon development and quantum computing.
Amazon cut 16,000 jobs across the company in January, part of a broader trend of tech companies restructuring around AI priorities. The latest cuts suggest that even Amazon's most ambitious AI research divisions are not immune to the efficiency drive sweeping the technology sector.
