Amazon has cut more jobs in its Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) unit as the company continues to reorganise its artificial intelligence business while keeping its investment in the technology.
The latest layoffs affect parts of Amazon’s AGI organisation, although the company has not disclosed how many employees lost their roles.
Workers in teams led by Adeeb Shanaa, vice president of AGI Data Services, and Vishal Sharma, vice president of AGI Information, said they were affected, according to posts shared on online forums.
Confirming the decision after a Reuters inquiry, an Amazon spokesperson said the company is committed to developing advanced AI systems but is narrowing its focus to projects it considers most important.
“We’ve been building large AI models for several years, and it remains one of the most important things we’re working on. We’re sharpening our focus on the initiatives that matter most for customers, so we can move faster on what counts.
“That focus means some difficult decisions, including eliminating some roles within parts of our AGI organisation.”
The layoffs follow changes in Amazon’s AI leadership over the past several months. Rohit Prasad, who previously led the company’s AGI efforts, left Amazon at the end of last year. David Luan, who headed the AGI Lab, also departed in February.
Following those exits, Amazon placed its AGI operations under Senior Vice President Peter DeSantis in December. His expanded responsibilities now include the company’s AGI work alongside its silicon development and quantum computing teams.
The latest cuts add to Amazon’s workforce reductions this year. In January, the company eliminated about 16,000 jobs across several business units. Earlier this month, it also reduced around 900 corporate positions in areas including human resources, finance and customer support as it improves efficiency.
Despite the restructuring, Amazon has repeatedly said AI is one of its biggest priorities. The company heavily invests in large AI models, cloud infrastructure through AWS and AI-powered services across its business.
Artificial General Intelligence refers to a theoretical form of AI that can perform intellectual tasks at or above human level while learning and improving independently. Although such systems have not yet been achieved, Amazon is among several technology companies working towards that goal.
Other firms, including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind, are also investing heavily in advanced AI research as competition in the sector continues to grow.
