According to an internal document, US technology giant Amazon is developing an artificial intelligence chat tool with the internal project code "Metis", which Amazon hopes to directly compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT.
According to people familiar with the project, this new service will be accessed through a web browser, similar to the way other artificial intelligence assistants work.
Metis is powered by an artificial intelligence model called Olympus within Amazon. According to insiders, the model is said to be an enhanced version of the company's existing Titan model.
According to internal documents, Metis will provide text and image based answers in an intelligent conversational manner, and it can also share links to its reply sources, suggest subsequent queries, and generate images.
Amazon also hopes that Metis will use an artificial intelligence technology called Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), which means that Metis will be able to retrieve more information beyond the raw data used to train its underlying Olympus model. This technology aims to generate more responses, such as Metis being able to share the latest stock prices with users, while other chatbots that are not based on RAG technology cannot do so.
In addition, Metis is also expected to serve as an artificial intelligence agent, able to automatically perform complex tasks based on existing data, such as planning vacation trips, helping you turn on lights, or booking flights.
Artificial Intelligence Assistant
Artificial intelligence assistants have always been a missing point for Amazon. Last year's internal document specifically pointed out that Amazon does not have a publicly available product with the same appearance and working style as ChatGPT, and there are no similar reserve products under development.
Through Metis, Amazon is attempting to join an already saturated market of artificial intelligence assistants. Amazon's biggest competitors, Microsoft and Google, launched their own artificial intelligence assistants nearly two years ago; OpenAI has been investing heavily in its market leading ChatGPT for many years; Meanwhile, Anthropic and several other AI startups have also provided their own AI chatbots and assistants.
An insider stated that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy was directly involved in the Metis project and recently reviewed the team's progress. The person added that the project is currently undergoing internal testing.
Jassy recently stated that Amazon's artificial intelligence program is expected to generate over $1 billion in annual revenue, and he also expects these plans to bring in "billions of dollars" in sales in the coming years.
Jassy pointed out that almost every department of the company is engaged in some kind of artificial intelligence project, and generative artificial intelligence is seen as a key driving force for Amazon's future growth.
In April of this year, Amazon launched its generative artificial intelligence chatbot Q to customers. Since its debut in November last year, the robot has demonstrated the ability to write or repair code and can provide multiple lines of code advice. However, the robot has received many negative evaluations due to its inaccurate output, known as "hallucinations". Since then, Amazon has been working hard to improve its artificial intelligence capabilities.