Amazon's AWS Unveils AI Chatbot 'Q' and New AI Chips

By: Isha Das

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has introduced 'Q', an AI-powered virtual assistant and chatbot designed to boost workplace productivity. Able to converse, solve problems, generate content, and offer insight, Q can access company information to deliver customized responses. AWS has promised user-based plans featuring tailored features and fees, affirming its commitment to privacy and security by not using content from Amazon Q users to enhance the service's AI model.

In conjunction with Q, two new chip families—Graviton4 and Trainium2—have been unveiled by AWS, purposed for AI applications. Claiming improved price performance and energy efficiency, these chips, available through Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), can be used for a wide array of machine learning and AI applications. A diverse array of companies—including AI company Anthropic, software firm Databricks, security firm Datadog, gaming platform Epic, observability platform Honeycomb, and multinational software company SAP—are reported to be utilizing these chips.

The release of Q is a significant part of Amazon's broader strategy to integrate generative AI across its product ecosystem, on both consumer and private sector fronts. Q is expected to streamline tasks, quicken decision-making and problem-solving, and help fuel creativity and innovation at work. A more complete version of Q, which is currently only offered in preview mode in Oregon and northern Virginia, is poised to be leveraged by AWS's major customers when it is rolled out.