Amazon provides Andrew Ng to its board, with eye on AI; Former MTV govt McGrath to step down

If choices taken by company boards of administrators can point out the place an organization needs to focus, Amazon’s board has taken an attention-grabbing step. firm introduced It was reported Thursday that Andrew Ng, identified for constructing AI into large tech corporations, is becoming a member of its board of administrators. The firm additionally mentioned that Judy McGrath – greatest identified for her work as a longtime TV govt, working MTV and serving to Viacom grow to be a media powerhouse – will step down as director.

Viewed collectively, each strikes paint an attention-grabbing image of the tech large’s intentions.

After a number of costly years of effort (Amazon spent) constructing an leisure empire. roughly $19 billion on its video and music companies in 2023), it’s attention-grabbing to see that McGrath, who would have been a key advocate and advisor on that technique, is not going to stand for reelection.

he’s No Which is to say, Amazon is not going to proceed as a significant power in streaming leisure, whether or not it is video, music, gaming, or anything. the corporate is Advertising is now beginning on Prime VideoWhich is an enormous purpose why he needs to maintain his viewers completely happy and coming again.

Still, will probably be attention-grabbing to see how investments in that section play out in 2024 Hundreds of workers have been laid off in its studio and video divisions, and it has additionally been winding down Prime Video in some areas, which may point out that the enterprise could also be smaller going ahead. And given the AI ​​whiplash that each main tech firm is at present coping with, it appears applicable that McGrath is now stepping away from the board.

To stay on the forefront of the tech business, Amazon will probably be on the lookout for higher thought management on the following steps in its synthetic intelligence technique.

It’s price remembering that Amazon has lengthy been a number one participant in AI. Its Alexa assistant and Echo units have carried out quite a bit to place voice recognition and linked assistants on the map; The firm is engaged on autonomous providers in air and floor supply and in-store buying; It makes use of machine studying to enhance the best way it targets merchandise; AWS is an enormous participant in AI compute; and it has been inserted lately billions In investing in large AI startups.

Yet, for at the very least a yr, within the wake of OpenAI’s GPT advances, Amazon has been wrestling with this notion (each inner type And from outdoors) that it’s “lagging behind” on know-how.

Is it true? Is it simply optics? Regardless, Ng’s appointment can solely be useful in elevating Amazon’s profile within the discipline of AI, as the corporate stands to realize extra thought management on actual innovation on this space, not simply follow-up steps.

Image Credit: techcrunch

Ng is doubtlessly a triple-threat board appointment: he has training, funding and sensible building expertise, and he has sometimes held all three roles concurrently. He is at present an assistant professor at Stanford; a basic accomplice in a enterprise studio known as AI Fund; He heads edtech firm DeepLearning.AI. And is the founding father of pc imaginative and prescient startup Landing AI; And he’s additionally the president of Coursera, one other edtech startup he based and leads.

Ng has additionally served as chief scientist and VP at Chinese search large Baidu, and he based and led Google Brain, which was He The search large’s first main foray into constructing and making use of AI know-how into its merchandise.

Amazon didn’t quote Ng in its announcement. We have contacted them straight, and can replace you at any time when we hear again.

It might really feel like a brand new wave of corporations and thinkers are setting the tempo in AI, however the Amazons of the world are definitely not standing idle.