Amazon's move follows its quasi-acquisition of Adept, which was developing AI-powered agents for software tasks. This acquisition is similar to Microsoft's deal with Inflection and has drawn regulatory scrutiny. Adept's vision was to create an AI model that can perform actions on any software tool using natural language, aiming to become an "AI teammate." The agentic AI sector is projected to be worth $31 billion by year-end, with companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google also exploring AI agents. Amazon has introduced conversational agents for its Bedrock AI platform and its Amazon Q Business assistant, with CEO Andy Jassy hinting at a more action-oriented Alexa in the future.
Key takeaways:
```html
- Amazon is establishing a new R&D lab in San Francisco, the Amazon AGI SF Lab, to develop foundational AI agent capabilities.
- The lab will be led by David Luan, co-founder of AI startup Adept, and will focus on building agents that can perform actions in digital and physical environments.
- The lab will initially be staffed by Adept employees, and Amazon plans to hire additional researchers in fields like quantitative finance, physics, and math.
- Amazon's move into AI agents is part of a broader trend, with other major players like OpenAI and Google also developing agent products for autonomous task completion.