AI Impacts All of Amazon, Says AGI Head

"AI's influence is felt across nearly every corner of Amazon," declared Vishal Sharma, the company's VP of Artificial General Intelligence, during his talk at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday. He brushed off suggestions that open source models could lessen the demand for computing power and sidestepped questions about whether European firms might shift their generative AI strategies due to geopolitical tensions with the U.S.

Speaking at the startup conference, Sharma highlighted that Amazon is integrating AI into its operations through its own foundational models. This includes Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company's cloud computing arm, the robotics used in its warehouses, and the Alexa consumer product, among other uses.

"We've got around three-quarters of a million robots now, handling everything from picking items to navigating the warehouse autonomously. Alexa is probably the most widely used home AI product out there... Generative AI touches every part of Amazon," Sharma stated.

In December, AWS unveiled a new set of four text-generating models, part of a family of multimodal generative AI models named Nova.

Sharma explained that these models are evaluated against public benchmarks: "It's clear there's a wide range of applications. There's no one-size-fits-all solution. Some scenarios require video generation... while others, like Alexa, need quick, predictable responses. You can't have it suggesting something like 'unlock the back door'."

However, he was skeptical about the idea that smaller open source models could reduce computing needs: "As you apply AI in various contexts, you just need more and more intelligence," he noted.

Amazon has also introduced "Bedrock," a service within AWS designed for companies and startups to blend different foundational models, including China's DeepSeek. This service allows users to switch between models effortlessly, according to Sharma.

Amazon is also constructing a massive AI compute cluster using its Trainium 2 chips in collaboration with Anthropic, in which it has invested $8 billion. Meanwhile, Elon Musk's xAI recently launched its latest flagship AI model, Grok 3, utilizing a huge data center in Memphis with about 200,000 GPUs.

When asked about the necessity of such extensive computing resources, Sharma remarked, "I believe compute will remain a key topic for a long time."

Sharma didn't feel pressured by the surge of open source models from China: "I wouldn't put it that way," he said. Instead, he emphasized Amazon's willingness to deploy DeepSeek and other models on AWS, stating, "We're all about giving choices... We're open to embracing trends and technologies that benefit our customers," Sharma added.

When asked if Amazon was caught off guard by OpenAI's ChatGPT launch in late 2022, Sharma disagreed: "Amazon has been working on AI for about 25 years. Take Alexa, for example; it runs on around 20 different AI models... We already had billions of parameters for language. We've been at this for a while."

Regarding the recent controversy involving Trump and Zelenskyy and its impact on U.S.-European relations, Sharma admitted it was "beyond" his "area of expertise" and the outcomes were "tough to predict..." Yet, he hinted diplomatically that some companies might adjust their strategies. "Technical innovation often responds to incentives," he concluded.