Amazon (AMZN) said that Karthik Ramakrishnan, a Vice President who has been helping lead the tech giant’s artificial general intelligence (AGI) project, will leave the company on Friday, according to Reuters. Interestingly, Ramakrishnan has worked at Amazon for 13 years and played a key role in developing the first version of Alexa and the Echo devices.
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It is worth mentioning that AGI is one of the most ambitious areas in artificial intelligence, since the goal is to build systems that could one day match or surpass human intelligence. If achieved, it could transform industries like healthcare, finance, and defense by automating tasks that are currently done by people. However, Ramakrishnan’s departure is part of a trend at Amazon, which has seen other senior executives leave in recent months, including Vasi Philomin, who oversaw generative AI, and Jon Jones, who led the AWS global startups and venture capital group.
Unsurprisingly, Amazon is pushing hard to strengthen its position in AI as competitors like OpenAI and Google (GOOGL) race ahead. In fact, the company has invested about $8 billion in Anthropic, whose Claude AI model is being integrated into Alexa and an internal chatbot called Cedric. Additionally, at a staff meeting this week, AWS Chief Matt Garman urged employees to speed up product releases after warning that Amazon risks losing attention from customers if new services take too long to roll out.
What Is the Price Target for AMZN Stock?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on Amazon stock based on 43 Buys assigned in the past three months. Furthermore, the average AMZN stock price target of $265.55 per share implies 20.6% upside potential from current levels.
