If decisions made by a company's board can indicate where the company wants to focus its efforts, Amazon's board has made an interesting move. The company announced Thursday that Andrew Ng, known for developing AI at major technology companies, will join its board of directors. The company also announced that Judy McGrath, a longtime TV executive known for running MTV and helping build Viacom into a media powerhouse, will resign from its board.
Taken together, these two moves create an interesting picture of the tech giant's intentions.
After years of working hard to build an entertainment empire (Amazon spent about $19 billion on its video and music business in 2023), Amazon has been a key advocate and advisor to its strategy. Mr. McGrath does not intend to run for re-election.
That's not to say Amazon won't continue to be a powerhouse in video, music, games, and other streaming entertainment. The company is now incorporating advertising throughout Prime Video, which is likely one of the big reasons it keeps viewers happy and coming back.
Still, it will be interesting to see how investment in that space plays out in 2024. The company has laid off hundreds of employees in its studio and video divisions, and is also downsizing Prime Video in some regions. Business may decline in the future. And McGrath's departure from the board now feels timely, given his AI whiplash issue that every major tech company is currently grappling with.
To remain at the forefront of the technology industry, Amazon will likely seek greater thought leadership in the next steps of its artificial intelligence strategy.
It's worth remembering that Amazon has long been a major player in AI. The company's Alexa assistant and Echo devices have made significant contributions to putting voice recognition and connected assistants on the map. The company is working on autonomous services in air and ground delivery, as well as in-store purchases. Use machine learning to improve how you target your products. AWS is a giant in AI computing. And recently it has poured billions into investing in major AI startups.
However, given OpenAI's advances in GPT, Amazon has been plagued by the impression (both internally and externally) that it is behind the curve on this technology for at least a year.
really? Is it just optics? Either way, Ng's appointment increases Amazon's profile in the AI space, as the company stands to not only make follow-on moves, but gain more thought leadership when it comes to true innovation in this space. It only serves to enhance it.
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Ng could potentially appoint three threats to the board. He has experience in academia, investment, and real construction, and typically handles all three of his roles simultaneously. He currently serves as an adjunct professor at Stanford University. General partner of a venture studio called AI Fund. He leads edtech company DeepLearning.AI and is the founder of computer vision startup Landing AI. He is also chairman of Coursera, another edtech startup he founded and led.
Ng also served as chief scientist and vice president at Chinese search giant Baidu, where he founded and led Google Brain. Google Brain was the company's first major foray into building and applying its AI technology across its products.
Amazon did not clarify Ng's statement in its statement. We've reached out to him directly and will update if we hear back.
It may feel like a new wave of companies and thinkers are pioneering AI, but the Amazons of the world are not sitting idly by.