AWS released Strands Decider 2B, an open source model small enough to run locally that picks from a fixed set of options and scores its own confidence in the choice, instead of generating text like a chatbot. It’s AWS’s take on Jev, a “decision model” that startup TypeSafe introduced in September, and it came out in the same week as OpenAI’s version. AWS distinguished engineer Marc Brooker built it on Alibaba’s Qwen3.5-2B after AWS customers said many steps in their AI agent workflows didn’t need a full, more expensive LLM. Researchers have released dozens of Jev-style models since September, and Brooker said they cost so little to build that he doesn’t expect the big labs to own the category, though TypeSafe CEO Diogo Almeida said none of the copies are real competition yet.
