Amazon has announced a new round of job cuts within its artificial general intelligence (AGI) group with continuing a series of targeted workforce reductions following a massive 16,000-employee layoff in January.
An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the decision on Wednesday explaining that the tech giant is realigning its resources to accelerate its most critical projects. "We’re sharpening our focus on the initiatives that matter most for customers" the spokesperson stated that this strategic shift required eliminating certain roles within the AGI organization.
Despite the cuts company emphasized that developing large-scale AI models remains one of its top priorities. AGI refers to a theoretical form of artificial intelligence capable of learning, operating autonomously and surpassing human intelligence a milestone many top tech firms are currently racing to achieve.
The latest layoffs follow significant leadership shakeups within Amazon's AI division. Late last year Rohit Prasad, a key executive overseeing AGI departed the company followed by AGI Lab head David Luan in February. In December, Amazon consolidated its AGI operations under Senior Vice President Peter DeSantis merging the unit with its quantum computing and silicon development teams.
While the exact number of affected employees has not been officially disclosed the workers under AGI Data Services Vice President Adeeb Shanaa and AGI Information Vice President Vishal Sharma reported job losses on online professional forums on Wednesday.
