Amazon has laid off employees in parts of its Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) division as it reshapes its AI teams to focus on projects with the biggest customer impact.
The move is the latest in a series of smaller job cuts across the company since Amazon eliminated 16,000 roles in January as part of a wider restructuring. The company has not disclosed how many employees were affected by the latest round of layoffs.
"We've been building large AI models for several years, and it remains one of the most important things we're working on," an Amazon spokesperson said, adding, “We're sharpening our focus on the initiatives that matter the 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.”
The layoffs do not signal a change in Amazon's AI ambitions. Instead, they reflect a shift in how the company is allocating people and resources across its AI business.
Amazon continues to work on its Nova line of foundation models even as it further builds its capabilities in generative AI in AWS. The company believes that AI is one of its topmost priorities for the future and will continue to make investments in it.
The workforce reduction follows key leadership changes within Amazon's AGI organization. Rohit Prasad, who oversaw the AGI business, left the company at the end of last year, and David Luan, head of the AGI Lab, departed in February.
In December, Amazon consolidated its AGI operations under Senior Vice President Peter DeSantis as part of a larger technology group that also oversees silicon development and quantum computing.
According to reports, employees working under Adeeb Shanaa, Vice President of AGI Data Services, and Vishal Sharma, Vice President of AGI Information, were among those affected. Amazon has not confirmed the full scope of the layoffs.
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AGI layoffs come months after the January layoff of 16,000 jobs across the organization as it seeks to streamline operations. This new development implies that Amazon continues to reorganize its teams as it boosts its efforts in certain areas that it finds important for its AI vision.
Despite these job losses, Amazon has clearly stated that it still considers AI as being very important for its future strategy. According to Amazon, the restructuring will help in cutting redundancies and fast tracking of its AI product projects that are very valuable to the customers.