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Amazon confirmed Monday that it’s planning to put off a number of hundred employees at its Alexa division as a part of a shift in focus to generative AI.
The corporate’s emphasis on growing generative AI programs has resulted within the launch of latest choices, just like the software rolled out in September to generate copy listings for customers promoting gadgets on the corporate’s e-commerce platform. The appliance is fueled by a massive language mannequin (LLM) that Amazon has been growing internally, initially to help the Alexa good assistant.
However in a press release Monday, the corporate mentioned its newest spherical of job cuts will affect workers engaged on Alexa-related efforts. “A number of hundred roles are impacted, a comparatively small share of the entire variety of folks within the Units enterprise who’re constructing nice experiences for our prospects.”
Amazon famous that there are greater than half a billion Alexa gadgets in prospects’ properties. “Our investments in generative AI are bringing our imaginative and prescient for an much more intuitive, clever, and helpful Alexa nearer than ever earlier than,” the corporate mentioned. “As we proceed to invent, we’re shifting a few of our efforts to higher align with our enterprise priorities, and what we all know issues most to prospects—which incorporates maximizing our sources and efforts centered on generative AI. These shifts are main us to discontinue some initiatives, which is leading to function eliminations.”
Amazon has already undertaken a number of rounds of layoffs within the final 12 months and this isn’t the primary time Amazon’s gadgets and companies staff, which incorporates these engaged on the corporate’s Echo gadgets and Alexa, has been in the reduction of. Workers on this division have been a part of 18,000 jobs Amazon axed at the beginning of 2023.
In March, the corporate introduced it might be shedding a further 9,000 employees, with the cuts affecting workers at AWS, PXT (Individuals Expertise and Know-how, Amazon’s HR arm), Promoting, and Twitch, the livestreaming service bought by Amazon in 2014 for almost $1 billion.
Copyright © 2023 IDG Communications, Inc.
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