Amazon announces $100m investment for generative AI innovation centre

Amazon Web Services is investing $100 million in a new innovation centre to help drive adoption of generative artificial intelligence among its customers.

The programme, which is available to AWS customers globally, will link machine learning and AI experts at AWS with customers who want to build and deploy AI solutions and services to benefit their business. The team includes strategists, data scientists, engineers, and solutions architects.

“We’re launching this innovation centre with the goal of helping as many of our customers as possible in going through the journey and getting the benefits of generative AI,” said Sri Elaprolu, who is heading up the AWS Generative AI Innovation Centre.

“The first thing is to get aligned on the use cases that are right for your organisation where generative AI can help. Once we identify that, we move into the second step, which is to build proof-of-concept solutions to address the precise need that customer has identified. We’re moving from art of the possible to the art of the practical, we’re making that vision turn into reality in the form of a solution that’s addressing the customer need.”

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The final step is to figure out how the solution can scale, to bring the benefits the business originally sought.

The centre is building on AWS’s investment in AI technologies, with more than 25 years of experience at the company in AI and machine learning.

The innovation centre is a virtual one, geographically distributed to take account of timezones, local laws and business norms, and regulations and compliance. That includes a large team based in Europe, Mr Elaprolu said.

He said the innovation centre had already begun its work, with hundreds of engagement with clients on building bespoke AI solutions. “We are going to grow and invest as needed to support as many of our customers as possible,” he said.

Among the applications for the centre are healthcare and life sciences companies seeking to accelerate drug research and discovery, personalised financial advice from the financial services sector, or in manufacturing to reinvent industrial design and processes.

But there have been concerns about the use of the technology, with governments looking at various ways of regulating the technology. Mr Elaprolu said the company supported regulations and laws based on risk assessment, rather than locking it down out of fear.

“There’s huge potential that this technology can drive and unlock for all customers of all shapes and sizes. We don’t want that innovation to be curbed entirely. We certainly encourage and expect laws that are on the books to be enforced,” he said. “We are participating in public policy discussions with government agencies in helping convey our thoughts and ideas on where, and how, we think that the technology should be properly controlled.”