Amazon laid off hundreds more Alexa employees, focusing on generative AI projects

CTOnews.com, Nov. 18 (Xinhua)-- Amazon has laid off hundreds of employees who are in charge of Alexa voice assistants after the company laid off about 180 people in its gaming division.

Amazon fired hundreds of Alexa team members in its offices in the United States and Canada, according to an internal memo disclosed by GeekWire.

Daniel Rausch, vice president of Amazon Alexa and Fire TV, said the division was refocusing its business development to ensure alignment with its business priorities and to make the most of our resources and efforts to focus on generative artificial intelligence.

While laying off hundreds of jobs, Lausch also said it would stop Alexa-related development plans. The memo did not provide specific figures on the number of employees affected or which "initiatives" would be closed.

Amazon is a little unprepared for the rapid rise of generative AI, which has been advocated mainly by Microsoft and Google over the past year, and it remains to be seen whether Amazon can catch up with these efforts fast enough.

Amazon is developing its own generative AI chat robot, code-named Olympus, which is likely to be announced at the company's AWS Reinvent conference on November 27, CTOnews.com reported recently, citing The Information.

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"sources say Amazon's gaming division has laid off about 180 people, concentrating resources on areas with more potential."