Silicon Valley has fallen under the spell of artificial intelligence (AI), and industry’s largest firms are racing to capitalise. Microsoft joined with ChatGPT developer OpenAI to develop an AI-assisted productivity program, while Alphabet’s Google offers an ad tool which creates content based on advertisers’ goals – such as driving sales or signing new customers.
Generative AI systems don’t intend to replace human workers entirely; rather, they aim to help them work more efficiently and effectively. Users prompt these systems with text, images, or videos which allow them to perform tasks that traditional computers or software programs cannot, such as creating memos and creating images from scratch. Tech giants are using these tools to boost their cloud computing business by making cloud services cheaper for companies of all sizes to use.
Dilip Kumar of Amazon Web Services’ Virtual Private Cloud division plans to set himself apart by competing on price, according to an executive at this division that sells on-demand computer power. Training and operating AI models is often costly; AWS says its large customer base and AI-specific chips help lower costs significantly.
One way AWS is helping smaller customers reduce costs is by offering large language models built by AI21 Labs and Anthropic as AI applications’ building blocks, for use with their services on AWS. They are being offered $250,000 worth of computing power free over one year compared to what’s offered to non-AI startups.
AWS recently unveiled Bedrock as an artificial intelligence (AI) marketplace designed specifically for large customers, similar to Elastic Compute Service for servers. Customers will be able to create personalized AI applications by uploading their own data and setting rules that direct how it should act upon it before deploying their app onto AWS cloud services; Bedrock will manage and protect it securely while adhering to all privacy and security laws, according to an AWS representative from their division.
Investors are eagerly awaiting details of Amazon’s generative AI marketplace platform to determine its workings and whether it can attract enough customers to offset high development costs. Investment firm Bernstein analysts have recommended Amazon prioritize AWS over physical retail operations and be more deliberate with ambitious projects like an autonomous car and spaceship – with Bernstein analysts noting the generative AI marketplace could serve as an effective test case of these plans.
