Jeff Bezos, founder of the world’s largest e-commerce company Amazon, is stepping into the role of CEO at an artificial intelligence (AI) startup.
The New York Times (NYT) reported on the 17th (local time), citing sources, that Bezos will serve as co-CEO of “Project Prometheus,” a startup developing AI for use in industries such as computing, aerospace, and automotive sectors.
This marks the first time in about four years that Bezos has taken an official executive position since stepping down as CEO of Amazon in July 2021. While he remains involved in managing his space company Blue Origin, his official title there is “Founder.”
Project Prometheus is reported to have already secured $6.2 billion in investment, including direct funding from Bezos himself. This amount is equivalent to the market capitalization of a company ranked around 70th on the KOSPI market. The NYT noted that this financial strength could provide Project Prometheus with a significant advantage in the AI sector.
According to sources, Project Prometheus has adopted a more complex training approach than existing generative AI models such as OpenAI, which have focused on building large language models (LLMs) through text-based learning.
Recently, there has been a notable trend toward applying AI to real-world physical challenges, such as robotics and drug development. The idea is to enable AI to more accurately reflect the real world by learning directly from physical environments, rather than solely from text as with LLMs. Periodic Labs, which has declared its aim to create an “AI scientist,” is a representative example. Bezos is also an investor in Periodic Labs.
Sources say Project Prometheus has already hired around 100 employees, including researchers from major AI companies such as OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Meta.
The individual serving as co-CEO alongside Bezos is Dr. Vic Bajaj, a physicist and chemist who previously worked at GoogleX with Google co-founder Sergey Brin. GoogleX has led various projects, including the drone delivery service Wing, the autonomous vehicle company Waymo, and the AI healthcare firm Verily. Dr. Bajaj is one of the founding members of Verily.
However, the NYT reported that details such as the founding date and headquarters location of Project Prometheus have not yet been released. On his social networking service (SNS) LinkedIn profile, Dr. Bajaj currently lists his position as co-CEO and co-founder of Project Prometheus, and indicates his workplaces as San Francisco in the United States, London in the United Kingdom, and Zurich in Switzerland.
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