Amazon's new AI model can shop for you online
What's the story
Amazon has unveiled a new artificial intelligence (AI) model, Nova Act, to help users with online shopping tasks.
The tool, which is still in a "research preview" stage, is only available for developers at the moment.
As part of the launch, Amazon is also expanding access to its other Nova AI models through a web portal for easier navigation and usage.
AI capabilities
Nova Act: Amazon's answer to OpenAI's Operator agent
Amazon's answer to OpenAI's Operator agent, Nova Act, comes with capabilities like web searches, purchases, and answering questions about what's on-screen.
The model can even perform tasks on a schedule and comprehend detailed instructions like "don't accept the insurance upsell" while making a purchase.
Though only available for developers at the moment, it is already being utilized for some online tasks in the upgraded Alexa Plus assistant.
AGI aspirations
Nova Act: A product of Amazon's AGI Labs
Nova Act is the first product to come out of Amazon's Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) Labs.
The lab hopes for agents like Act to "perform wide-ranging, complex, multi-step tasks like organizing a wedding or handling complex IT tasks to increase business productivity."
This ambition is similar to that of other companies looking to develop AI agents that can perform specific tasks instead of just answering questions or generating art.
AI suite
Nova Act: Joining Amazon's suite of AI models
Nova Act joins five other Nova models announced in December 2024, including three "understanding" models and image and video generators.
Rather than focusing on power, Amazon highlights the speed and value of the Nova suite, claiming they are "at least 75% less expensive" than comparable rivals.
This is in line with Amazon's strategy to offer cost-effective solutions while keeping performance levels high in its AI offerings.
Developer access
Amazon's new website streamlines access to Nova models
To make it easier for developers and other US-based folks to use these models, Amazon has launched a website to interact with them directly for answering queries or generating content.
Earlier, these models were only available via Amazon Bedrock, an AI model platform on Amazon Web Services.
Rohit Prasad, Senior Vice President of Amazon AGI said the site is aimed at letting developers "quickly test their ideas with Nova models, and then implement them at scale in Amazon Bedrock."