Amazon Axes AI Models, Shifts Focus to Single Frontier Initiative
Amazon is undergoing significant changes in its artificial intelligence (AI) division. The tech giant has begun 'deprecating' several prominent models from its Nova lineup, including high-end Premier and Omni models, the Reel video generator, and the Canvas image generator. These systems are being shifted into a 'keep the lights on' state, which means they will remain active for existing enterprise clients but will no longer receive active development or feature updates.
The shutdown of Lab, a high-profile research unit formed in 2024 following Amazon's acquisition of key talent from AI startup Adept, is also part of this reorganization. Instead of spreading resources across multiple text, image, and video generation projects, Amazon is redirecting compute power and technical staff toward a single primary initiative designed to keep pace with industry rivals.
A new frontier-model effort, led by renowned AI roboticist Pieter Abbeel, will be the focus of engineering priorities and hardware resources. This initiative aims to build Amazon's next-generation foundation model, which is expected to debut at the company's annual re:Invent conference.