For the past few years, artificial intelligence has continued to develop and become increasingly integrated into human affairs – every day, we see a new use for AI that takes work for the average person, for better or worse.
Now, advancement in the AI scene may take a step further, as former Amazon CEO and current Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos has returned to contribute to its implementation through Project Prometheus.
The company is already rolling out with around $6.2 billion in funding, a portion of which comes from Bezos himself. This number ranks it among the most financially backed organizations in the world today, the New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources.
What is Prometheus
Too little is known about the start-up, namely the location of its base of operations, its date of establishment, and the fully disclosed intentions behind its AI models. Before it was first reported by the Times on November 17th, it mainly stayed off the radar.
What can be said now, though, is that the company intends to develop AI models for industry and more physical applications; the Times themselves said the technology “dovetails with Mr. Bezos’ interest in taking people to outer space.”
This deviates from the general public’s application of AI as language models in software, including generative tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini as part of a search engine. While it’s not explained in great detail, Project Prometheus will, as tech news provider and influencer Sawyer Merit stated on X, “…build AI products for engineering and manufacturing in fields like computers, aerospace, and automobiles.” He also noted that the company already has nearly 100 employees, having recruited some researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Meta.
The Partnership
Serving alongside Bezos as the other co-CEO is Vik Bajaj, who also has extensive experience in executive roles. For example, Bajaj co-founded and served as the director of Xiara Therapeutics and CEO of Foresight Labs, and the former’s website includes his focus on research for “the interface of the physical sciences, engineering, and the life sciences.”
Bajaj as well worked alongside Google co-founder Sergey Brin, as a director at X, at the Moonshot Factory (formerly Google X), a research and development branch focused on advancing new technologies like Waymo and Wing, self-driving cars and delivery drones, respectively.
Adding to his portfolio of executive roles, Kajaj has now joined mega-billionaire Jeff Bezos to co-lead Project Prometheus and dive into the bustling AI scene.
It’s expected that the companies Prometheus acquired its employees from – OpenAI, Google Deepmind, and Meta – will be some of its major competitors; alongside them is a fellow mega-billionaire and one of Bezos’s longtime competitors, Elon Musk, who expressed disdain for the startup in his response to Sawyer Merit’s tweet by accusing them of copying.
As of now, Bezos has not commented on these allegations, but given that he, one of the wealthiest men alive, is co-running Prometheus, some wouldn’t be wrong to believe in its future success. It also invites consideration of what kind of edge it may have over similar companies.
Advantages
Whether Prometheus has an edge in this highly competitive industry remains to be determined and is subject to speculation. In NBC’s coverage of its emergence, NPR tech reporter Bobby Allen pointed out that Bezos has actually been involved in the scene before – he cited that many companies Bezos has founded or invested in, such as Amazon, have already used AI for some time. Still, the launching of Prometheus is something new because “you have one of the richest people in the world, one of the biggest tech innovators, directly entering the AI race.”
Another advantage they mention is Bezos’s plan to place data centers in space. Major issues associated with AI include data storage, reliable energy sources, and cooling systems – some of which, Bezos believes, can be solved by sending gigawatt-scale data centers into orbit. These are speculated to be more efficient than earth-based centers and are predicted to become a reality within 10-20 years.
Prometheus may have a competitive advantage due to its massive funding and Bezos’s leadership, though its success remains uncertain.
“I think that ‘putting-data-centers-in-space’ thing is a fun kind of sci-fi speculative topic – as of now, it’s not going to happen,” said Bobby Allen on the matter, pointing out that around $400 billion is being spent this year on just the United States. However, this may change when the focus shifts to space data centers, since “Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have real real estate up in space, so they’re the ones that are going to have the real advantage here.”
Implications
In the past few years, AI has continued to evolve in its capabilities and applications. Now that one of the wealthiest men in the world has become more directly involved through Project Prometheus, AI usage will only become more widespread in our daily lives. Initially, being a software feature for students and adults, AI may now start being applied more to hardware, like self-driving cars or the continued designing of robots not unlike those in science fiction.
As of now, mega-billionaires like Bezos and Musk will continue to focus on their ambitions, from bringing AI into the physical world for engineering and manufacturing to advancing space exploration. It remains to be seen precisely what innovations Prometheus will get to the “AI arms race,” and whether they will prove successful in the long run – either way, one can reasonably expect AI to continue improving and see more use in our day-to-day lives.
