Amazon is reportedly working on developing an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot comparable to OpenAI's ChatGPT. The company's internal project is codenamed Metis. The chatbot will reportedly be able to perform all the typical tasks of generative AI, such as creating text content and responding to queries. It will also reportedly support image generation and have access to the internet. Moreover, the new AI platform could reportedly be released in September 2024, when Amazon holds its annual Devices and Services event.
Amazon may soon launch its own AI chatbot
The e-commerce giant aims to compete directly with ChatGPT with its AI model, according to a Business Insider report. Citing a person familiar with the project, the publication claims that the project is code-named Metis, after the Greek goddess of wisdom, prudence, and deep thought. The chatbot, like most popular AI chatbots, is designed to be accessible through a web browser.
According to internal documents obtained by the magazine, Metis' chatbot will be powered by the company's in-house AI model, Olympus, which is said to be more advanced than the existing Titan large-scale language model (LLM) that powers some of Amazon's products.
In terms of functionality, the AI chatbot is said to be able to perform text-based tasks such as conversation, answering questions, and generating content. Additionally, the report says it can also generate images, suggesting that Metis will use a multimodal AI model. Notably, ChatGPT cannot generate images, but users can obtain a subscription to Dall-E and use it via ChatGPT.
Metis plans to use a search-enhanced generative AI framework
The Metis chatbot will reportedly work on the Search Augmentation and Generation (RAG) AI framework. This mechanism uses a combination of text generation and information retrieval from large datasets to improve the quality of responses. The chatbot will reportedly be able to access and retrieve information from the internet.
For example, it will be able to display near real-time stock price updates, something that many AI chatbots struggle with, but both ChatGPT and Gemini, powered by GPT-4o, can do this.
The project is reportedly being developed by the company's Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) division, led by senior vice president and chief scientist Rohit Prasad, while Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is also said to be heavily involved in the project.
The report highlights concerns from some employees that Amazon will fall behind in an already competitive race to develop AI chatbots.
