Amazon loses an AWS generative AI boss as tech talent shuffle heats up

An Amazon company logo is seen on the facade of a company's building in Schoenefeld near Berlin, Germany, on March 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File)

SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon’s AWS recently lost a key vice president helping oversee generative artificial intelligence development as well as the company’s Bedrock service, as the competition for talent heats up.

Vasi Philomin told Reuters in an email that he left Amazon for another company, without providing specifics. A company spokesperson confirmed that Philomin had recently left after eight years with Amazon. Philomin helped lead generative AI efforts and product strategy, and oversaw foundation models known as Amazon Titan.

The spokesperson said Rajesh Sheth, a vice president previously overseeing Amazon Elastic Block Store, had assumed some of Philomin’s responsibilities. Philomin left Amazon earlier in June.

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In his biography, Philomin said he helped create and lead Amazon Bedrock, a hub for using multiple AI models and one of AWS’s premier products in its battle for AI supremacy. He was a frequent speaker at AWS events, including Amazon’s annual cloud computing conference in Las Vegas. An Amazon spokesman noted that there are other vice presidents at AWS who also work on generative AI projects.

Amazon is working to bolster its reputation in AI development, after rivals like OpenAI, and Google have taken an early lead, particularly with consumer-focused models.

The Seattle-based online retailer and technology powerhouse has invested US$8 billion in AI startup Anthropic and integrated its Claude software into its own products including a new revamped version of voice assistant Alexa that it’s rolling out to customers this year.

In December, Amazon introduced its Nova AI models which provide for text, video and image generation. Earlier this year, it added to the lineup with a version called Sonic that can more readily produce natural-sounding speech.

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Companies are employing creative techniques to hire top AI talent, including using sports industry data analysis to help identify undiscovered talent, Reuters reported last month. As a result, compensation has skyrocketed for some.

However, as Amazon races to produce more advanced AI, it said it expects its own success will lead to fewer corporate jobs, according to a memo from CEO Andy Jassy last week. Job growth limits will be driven in particular by so-called agentic AI, which can perform tasks with minimal or even no additional input from people.

“As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today and more people doing other types of jobs,” Jassy wrote.

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Reporting by Greg Bensinger; Editing by David Gregorio