WASHINGTON: Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world's largest cloud computing company, is aggressively lobbying the public sector to join the artificial intelligence revolution as it intensifies its generative AI race with Microsoft and Google.
AWS and other cloud giants say the technology made popular by ChatGPT can have a huge impact on improving public services such as healthcare, security, charity and NGO work.
But getting governments and nonprofits to sign on is harder than convincing private companies, so on Wednesday AWS opened up a two-year, $50 million funding window for potential public customers to test ideas.
The public sector market for cloud computing is already significant.
According to company data, AWS serves 7,500 government organizations, 14,000 academic institutions, and 85,000 non-profit organizations in 215 countries.
The initiative will allow approved AI projects to access cloud computing credits, training and technical expertise.
“We're seeing a lot of ideas, a lot of use cases, a lot of proofs of concept that we think will be really impactful,” said Dave Levy, vice president of global public sector business at AWS. AFP.
“Where public sector organizations really need support and assistance is in putting this stuff into production,” Levy said ahead of an AWS public sector “summit” in Washington.
The battle over the adoption of generative AI in the public sector comes as Microsoft's cloud business and Google Cloud are trying to make inroads into AWS' market leadership.
Generative AI, which took the world by storm with the release of ChatGPT, is able to process vast amounts of data held by the public sector at scale and generate content of the same quality as human-created content.
AWS’ Bedrock platform offers generative AI to its clients by allowing access to a range of models, such as Anthropic’s Claude model, which are used to power custom-made AI tools and applications.
Levy argued that the benefits of AI will far outweigh the challenges, given how much the technology can do with available data.
In one example of generative AI cited by AWS, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston used Anthropic's Claude model to build a new research solution that helps doctors interpret test results.
Meanwhile, in the UK, Swindon Borough Council used the AWS cloud to build a generative AI tool to make complex leasing agreements easier to understand.
Published in Dawn on June 27, 2024
