Amazon is overhauling its AI strategy, reorganizing its in-house teams and sunsetting several of its own flagship Nova models, including Premier, Omni, Reel, and Canvas, according to Business Insider sources. Several Amazon employees described the models as operating in “KTLO” or “keep the lights on” mode, which refers to software that remains supported for existing customers but is no longer in development.
The moves follow layoffs in Amazon's Artificial General Intelligence group last month and the shutdown of AGI Lab, a research group it started in 2024 after acqui-hiring the team behind Adept. Business Insider says the restructuring suggests Amazon is refocusing its AI strategy and concentrating engineering talent on its highest priorities, instead of investing in various models across text, image, and video.
Sources said that Amazon is moving resources away from its existing Nova models toward a new frontier-model effort led by Pieter Abbeel, a researcher who joined Amazon through its acquisition of AI robotics startup Covariant. The new model, known internally as Frontier Model Research, will be a top priority this year.
An Amazon spokesperson said:
“AI models remain one of the most important things we're working on, and that hasn't changed. As with any AI portfolio, we continually evolve our model lineup based on what customers need, and we always provide customers clear guidance and migration paths as models advance.”
At this point, Amazon can't lose at AI (outside of China absolutely demolishing all U.S. efforts entirely). The company has $50B invested in OpenAI and $13B in Anthropic, with up to $20B more to Anthropic tied to milestones, and hundreds of billions of dollars dedicated to AI infrastructure buildout this year that outside models will also run on. Whoever ultimately wins the AI race, Amazon will win it right alongside them.
