By Bitwave 
Amazon Establishes New R&D Lab for Building Foundation Capabilities in Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
Amazon has announced the establishment of a new Research and Development (R&D) lab, the Amazon AGI SF Lab, which will focus on building foundational capabilities for AI agents. The lab will be led by David Luan, co-founder of AI startup Adept, and will aim to develop agents that can take actions in both digital and physical worlds.
Key Objectives of the Amazon AGI SF Lab
The initial focus of the lab will be on several key research bets that will enable AI agents to perform real-world actions, learn from human feedback, self-course-correct, and infer goals. The researchers at the lab will work closely with Luan and Pieter Abbeel, a robotics researcher who joined Amazon after the company’s ‘license and hire’ deal with Covariant.
Collaboration between Adept and Amazon
The Adept team has been seeded to the Amazon AGI SF Lab, and Amazon is looking to hire additional researchers in fields such as quantitative finance, physics, and math. In June, Adept agreed to license its tech to Amazon, and Luan and portions of Adept’s team joined the e-commerce giant.
Amazon’s Expansion into AI
This move marks Amazon’s expansion into the agentic AI sector, which has seen significant growth in recent years. The ‘agentic’ AI sector could be worth $31 billion by the end of this year, according to Emergen Research. Eighty-two percent of organizations plan to integrate AI agents within three years, attracted by the possible efficiency boosts.
Competition in Agentic AI
Several major players, including OpenAI and other AI startups, are developing similar products that can complete tasks largely on their own. Anthropic released its take on the tech earlier this year, while Google is reportedly working on AI agents that can make purchases, such as booking flights and hotels, on users’ behalf.
Amazon’s Previous Efforts in Agentic AI
Amazon has previously dabbled in the space but is yet to make a serious play. In July, the company announced conversational agents for its Bedrock AI development platform, and just last week, it brought agents to its Amazon Q Business assistant platform for enterprise customers and devs.
Agentic Alexa
Top executives at Amazon have hinted at a more ‘agentic’ Alexa that will be capable of not only responding to questions but taking actions as well. With the establishment of the Amazon AGI SF Lab, the company is making significant strides in this direction.
Timeline of Key Events
- June: Adept agreed to license its tech to Amazon.
- July: Amazon announced conversational agents for its Bedrock AI development platform.
- Last week: Amazon brought agents to its Amazon Q Business assistant platform for enterprise customers and devs.
Related News in the Agentic AI Sector
- Researchers open source Sky-T1, a ‘reasoning’ AI model that can be trained for less than $450 (Kyle Wiggers)
- Microsoft accuses group of developing tool to abuse its AI service in new lawsuit (Kyle Wiggers)
Conclusion
Amazon’s establishment of the Amazon AGI SF Lab marks a significant step towards building foundation capabilities in artificial general intelligence. With the initial focus on several key research bets, the lab is poised to make significant contributions to the agentic AI sector.
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in developing AI agents that can perform tasks largely on their own. Several major players have made significant strides in this direction, including OpenAI and other AI startups. With Amazon’s entry into the space, it will be interesting to see how the company approaches this challenge.
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