Amazon Web Services said yesterday that it is introducing a new chatbot designed for business users.
Its name: “Q.”
Wired reports that “it’s aimed at people who use AWS at work, including coders, IT administrators, and business analysts. In response to typed requests, it will help developers write code, answer questions about how to use AWS cloud services for administrators, and generate business reports by tapping into QuickSight, a business intelligence platform in AWS.
“Amazon’s new chatbot is also integrated into Amazon Connect, a customer service platform, to help agents solve support requests. The company says Amazon Q can be customized to a company by accessing proprietary data, and can be programmed to work differently for different employees. It also has security safeguards designed to please wary IT bosses … Q uses a range of different artificial intelligence models under the hood, including Amazon’s own Titan large language model and LLMs built by Cohere and Anthropic, two well-funded startups competing with OpenAI.”
Some context from the Wired story:
“Since ChatGPT’s launch last November prompted the tech industry to ramp up its investments in AI, Amazon has not led the pack of tech giants trying to compete with OpenAI. Microsoft rapidly added generative AI to its search engine Bing and is now rolling out its Copilot AI assistant throughout its products, thanks to a partnership with OpenAI that saw Microsoft pledge $13 billion in investment into the startup. Google has pivoted to developing and deploying generative AI technology that it had previously held back from public release across a wide range of offerings with a new sense of urgency.”
And:
“Amazon is making other moves to catch up in generative AI. In September, it said it would introduce ChatGPT-like capabilities to Alexa, its voice assistant. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Amazon has dedicated a team to building a language model, code-named Olympus, that will be larger than OpenAI’s GPT-4, which powers ChatGPT, perhaps promising better capabilities. That suggests OpenAI will see more intense competition next year. Google is also working on a more powerful AI model, known as Gemini.”
KC’s View:
Two things here.
First, my assumption has been that while it has not appeared that Amazon was being as aggressive as other companies in this area, that did not mean it wasn’t preparing its own suite of AI-oriented products and services. I would guess that this is just the beginning, and will build on Amazon’s stated desire to be intertwined inextricably in every part of our lives. Plus, AWS’s existing relationships with many businesses gives it easy access to a huge pool of customers.
Second, “Q” is the most tone-deaf name that I can think of for this product, and only creates opportunity for mockery when, inevitably, it gets something wrong. It is a latter than these days is less associated with the Quartermaster who provides James Bond with his various weapons and gadgets, and more with a conspiracy theory movement – “cult” would be a better word – that specializes in fabricating stories, fomenting paranoia, and contributing to an environment in which violence and intolerance thrive. (Is there nobody at Amazon Web Services who reads the papers?)
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