Amazon's Cloud Business Looks Vulnerable in Wake of ChatGPT (bloomberg.com) 10
For years, Amazon Web Services' annual Las Vegas trade show functioned as an infomercial for its cloud computing platform, rarely mentioning the competition. The pitch was so successful that AWS pulls in $90 billion per year. Then generative AI emerged, with Microsoft and Google baking it into products their cloud units sell. Suddenly, AWS faced startups building businesses on rivals' AI-powered platforms. So at AWS's 2023 event, AI was ubiquitous -- in presentations, launches, partnerships. AWS announced more models powering AI services and its largest-ever tech investment, $4 billion in generative AI startup Anthropic. AWS aims to show that, despite stiffening competition, it remains the leader in cloud computing. From a report: If Amazon had been caught off guard by the dawn of the generative AI age, here was evidence of a massive, companywide effort to catch up. "This is what last place looks like," analysts with Sanford C. Bernstein quipped in a research note. In the short term, AWS is going to be fine. Slowing sales growth aside, Amazon's servers remain the default starting point for companies looking to modernize old infrastructure or do much of anything online. And though generative AI makes for an impressive demo, the technology is error-prone and expensive. For most companies, it's an experiment, not a necessity.
Still, "to remain relevant," AWS needs to have a handle on generative AI, according to JB McGinnis, a principal at Deloitte who helps companies use AWS. "If they're not competing, they might lose the cloud game, too." Late in the week of the conference, Amazon invited thousands of attendees with ties to startups to the Las Vegas Raiders' stadium, which it had rented out for the occasion, plying them with drinks and AWS swag and giant versions of bar games. Before a panel discussion on artificial intelligence, Swami Sivasubramanian, the Amazon executive in charge of the company's AI services, declared 2023 the year of generative AI. Nearby, an AWS product leader walked up to the founder of a tiny startup, introduced himself, and asked what Amazon could do better. This was a humbled AWS, one that has to fight for business.
Still, "to remain relevant," AWS needs to have a handle on generative AI, according to JB McGinnis, a principal at Deloitte who helps companies use AWS. "If they're not competing, they might lose the cloud game, too." Late in the week of the conference, Amazon invited thousands of attendees with ties to startups to the Las Vegas Raiders' stadium, which it had rented out for the occasion, plying them with drinks and AWS swag and giant versions of bar games. Before a panel discussion on artificial intelligence, Swami Sivasubramanian, the Amazon executive in charge of the company's AI services, declared 2023 the year of generative AI. Nearby, an AWS product leader walked up to the founder of a tiny startup, introduced himself, and asked what Amazon could do better. This was a humbled AWS, one that has to fight for business.
last place? (Score:2)
This is what last place looks like? You mean last place in a race that has not yet even started, a race whose value has yet to be demonstrated?
More like what last place analysts look like.
Maybe Amazon should steal other people's AI work, like Elon Musk has done. That's what last place really looks like.
Re: last place? (Score:2)
Respectfully, the race has been going for a year. But I think it's clear nobody is sure where the finish line is. That being said, I agree that the value proposition is significant, and stupid to ignore. Nobody wants to be Windows 3.1, with no TCP stack.
The meaning of "Cloud" (Score:3, Interesting)
In the beginning there were slide presentations on overhead projectors. Then Apple gave the Macs presentation software and from then on all page borders were squares with round edges. The resolution was not as high as what can be last-second squiggled with a marker on a slide, and so presenters started abstracting complex things into a "cloud shape" -- thoughtfully provided by the Mac software. It sure beat a black-box!
Now we have taken that level of abstraction and have sold it to customers. No need to worry about your data safety - "it's in the cloud." Some movies and TV shows even have outlandish ideas that data is constantly flowing all over the world and if you "hit" the right datacenter at just the right time, all your data wil be on a set of drives there for a few minutes so you can exfiltrate it. In the process of selling this to customers the abstraction has become SO abstract that the only real difference between which company you "use to get to The Cloud" is whichever company you want to do business with. It's like choosing to get TV from Comcast (worst customer service in the US years running) or YouTube-TV, which has great customer service.
So now that all these big "Cloud Companies" have spent millions of dollars abstracting "The Cloud" -- and also using it to convince customers to "switch from Alice's Cloud to Bob's Cloud because it's all Cloud" they're trying to de-abstract it so they can differentiate their product from the competition. It used to be bundled software, and now it's access to the LLM O' The Moment. They can pretend it's intelligent, but other than laypeople, venture capitalists, and resume-padders nobody calls it AI. It's the latest buzzword to get investment cash or write up stupid "news" stories. Before AI there were Quantum, Blockchain, Crypto, Public-Key, DevOps, etc.
I wish them all well trying to explain to Joe Sixpack CEO why The Cloud is better over here .
the latest hype (Score:1)
Swami Sivasubramanian (Score:2, Interesting)
"Swami Sivasubramanian, the Amazon executive in charge of the company's AI services"
I'm amazed at some Indian names, which seem to pack in as many loaded word fragments as possible. English names frequently have biblical or historical hero origins to be sure, but hardly anyone names their baby things like "Reverend Godsmacksupreme". I've met a lot of Raj and Krishna guys, I realize its just part of the culture but it puts me off a little.
Re: (Score:2)
News just in: English Speakers Continue to be Gobsmacked by Other Cultures.
In Europe, note some very long German names, especially those of nobles. "Friederike Luise Thyra Victoria Margarita Sophia Olga Cecilia Isabella Christa zu Hanover." Some have many "middle" names, stick in at least 3 saints, 1 name from one of mom's ancestors, 1 name from on of dad's ancestors, and the middle name the parents really want, etc. Or in England, King Charles' full name is "Charles the Third, by the Grace of God of the
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps the somewhat "intimidating" aspect of long names is inexperience with tokenization. A stream of 15 letters may seem like jibberish to someone who is not familiar with such types of names. For example, most Americans don't have a problem recognizing or even pronouncing Arnold Schwarzenegger because we're familiar with his name. It's not a matter of length but familiarity.
For example, if the name Sivasubramanian were presented as Siva subra manian, that would likely be easier to pronounce and remem
Re: (Score:2)
Jeff = "the peace of the god"
Frank= "a noble free man"
Bill = "imposes his will while wearing a helmet"
Arnold = "the strength of the eagle"
Vlad ="a strong peace"
Alice = "from a noble family"
Jenny = "the white fay or ghost"
Give it time and all languages simplify the spelling of long words to make them easier to speak. It's not a purely American or British optimization.
(Also you can look up the etymology of names yourself and correct me on the details above, it's fun)
Re: (Score:2)
That is all correct I'm sure, but you have to look up the etymology of the names to uncover it. The names themselves don't imply any of those phrases otherwise.
Swami is "an honorific title given to a male or female ascetic who has chosen the path of renunciation". Siva is one of the principal deities of Hinduism, and Brahma is another one. It seems like a heavy load of expectations to put on a kid with that name.