Amazon Makes Bold Move with Acquisition of AI Startup Adept

Amazon Makes Bold Move with Acquisition of AI Startup Adept

Today, Amazon.com made a strategic move in the AI space, acquiring San Francisco-based AI startup, Adept. The move comes as Amazon seeks to compete with rivals like Microsoft and Alphabet, who are seen as leaders in the field of AI. Adept’s co-founders and some of its team will join Amazon, with David Luan, the CEO and co-founder of Adept, taking on a leadership role within the tech giant.

This acquisition follows in the footsteps of Microsoft, who earlier this year hired away the leadership and employees of Inflection AI. Microsoft’s move has garnered regulatory attention, with the Federal Trade Commission investigating whether it was an attempt to bypass merger disclosure requirements. Adept, however, will continue to operate independently of Amazon, receiving a licensing fee for the use of their technology.

Amazon’s interest in AI is no secret. The company has been investing heavily in training a large language model, hoping to rival the models developed by Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Alphabet. With the addition of Adept’s team, Amazon is signaling its ambition to focus on AI agent tools, an area that other major labs are also prioritizing.

Rohit Prasad, who oversees artificial general intelligence (AGI) at Amazon, will be supervising the Adept team. Prasad, the former head of Alexa, has brought in researchers working on Alexa AI and the Amazon science team to join forces in training models and advancing AI efforts across the company. Prasad expressed his excitement about the potential impact of the Adept acquisition, stating that it will significantly contribute to their quest for achieving AGI.

While Adept had discussions with other tech companies, such as Meta, no partnership or deal was pursued. Meta, for its part, declined to comment on the matter. It remains to be seen how Amazon will leverage the expertise of the Adept team and how it will shape the company’s AI endeavors in the future.

As AI continues to play an increasingly important role in technology and business, Amazon’s acquisition of Adept positions the company to be a significant player in this rapidly evolving field. With the competition heating up, it will be fascinating to see how Amazon utilizes the talent and technology it has gained through this acquisition to shape the future of AI.