Amazon’s big AWS cloud event has begun, with a clear focus on the use of AI to keep its lead intact<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\nAmazon Web Services<\/span> is live in Las Vegas for its AWS re:Invent event, which kicked off November 27 and runs until December 1. We expect a rapid-fire stream of announcements and unveilings of recent things it\u2019s been working on, particularly given the increased competition for cloud providers to meet the rise of AI with compelling offers for customers. AWS CEO Adam Selipsky\u2019s keynote<\/a> set the tone for the event, making it clear that AWS is in a position to defend its longstanding lead, and it\u2019s deploying AI tools and services to continue being the top large cloud provider in the market.<\/p>\nWe know you might not have time to watch the whole thing<\/span>, so we\u2019re taking that on for the next few days and will deliver quick hits of the biggest news as they are announced, all in an easy-to-digest, easy-to-skim list featuring on-the-ground reporting from editors and cloud experts Frederic Lardinois<\/a> and Ron Miller<\/a>, along with contributions from the wider TechCrunch team. Here we go!<\/span><\/p>\nStay tuned for more product updates, announcements and analysis.<\/i><\/p>\nWednesday, Nov. 29<\/h2>\nNeptune Analytics<\/h2>\n<\/a><\/p>\nImage Credits:<\/strong> AWS<\/p>\n<\/div>\nAnother new tool is Neptune Analytics<\/a>, which combines the best of both worlds: graph and vector databases. Ron reports that the new service helps customers analyze existing Neptune graph data or data lakes on top of S3 storage, taking advantage of vector search to find key insights. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\nClean Rooms ML<\/h2>\n![\"AWS](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2023-cleanrooms-ml-rev-0.png?w=680\")
<\/p>\nAWS Clean Rooms ML helps you to unlock various opportunities for you to generate insights.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Amazon\u2019s launching a privacy-preserving service that lets AWS customers deploy \u201clookalike\u201d AI models trained for one-off company-company collaborations called Clean Rooms ML<\/a>, which Kyle writes is an offshoot of AWS\u2019 existing Clean Rooms<\/a> product and removes the need for AWS customers to share proprietary data with their outside partners to build, train and deploy AI models. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\nSageMaker HyperPod<\/h2>\n![\"AWS](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Screenshot-2023-11-29-at-9.20.50-AM.png?w=680\")
<\/p>\nImage Credits:<\/strong> AWS<\/p>\n<\/div>\nFrom Amazon\u2019s AWS cloud arm comes the SageMaker HyperPod<\/a>, a new purpose-built service for training and fine-tuning large language models. Frederic spoke with Ankur Mehrotra, AWS\u2019 general manager for SageMaker, ahead of today\u2019s announcement, who said, \u201cSageMaker HyperPod gives you the ability to create a distributed cluster with accelerated instances that\u2019s optimized for disputed training. It gives you the tools to efficiently distribute models and data across your cluster \u2014 and that speeds up your training process.\u201d Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\nAWS Titan image generator<\/h2>\n![\"AWS](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Screenshot-2023-11-29-at-8.52.52-AM.png?w=680\")
<\/a><\/p>\nImage Credits:<\/strong> AWS<\/p>\n<\/div>\nYou read that right, Amazon is joining the ranks of other big techs in finally releasing its own image generator<\/a>. Kyle reports that the Titan Image Generator is now available in preview for AWS customers and can create new images when given a text description or customize existing images. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\nTuesday, Nov. 28<\/h2>\nAmazon Q: An AI-powered chatbot<\/h2>\n![\"Amazon](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Screen-Shot-2023-11-28-at-11.44.40-AM-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAmazon Q is Amazon\u2019s new AI-powered chatbot. Image Credits:<\/strong> Amazon<\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe big announcement for the day was Amazon Q, an AI-powered chatbot for AWS customers<\/a>. During his keynote, AWS CEO Adam Selipsky described it as being able to \u201ceasily chat, generate content and take actions. It\u2019s all informed by an understanding of your systems, your data repositories and your operations.\u201d Kyle reports that Q is trained on 17 years\u2019 worth of AWS knowledge and will go beyond just answering questions \u2014 it will also do things like understand the nuances of app workloads and suggest AWS solutions and products for apps that only run for a few seconds. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\nGuardrails for Amazon Bedrock<\/h2>\n![\"AWS](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2023-amazon-bedrock-guardrails-01.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAWS Guardrails for Amazon Bedrock. Image Credits:<\/strong> Amazon<\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe new Guardrails for Amazon Bedrock tool lets companies define and limit the kinds of language a model can use. For example, define topics that are out of bounds for the model, so it simply doesn\u2019t answer irrelevant questions, Ron writes. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\nNew AWS Trainium chips for AI models<\/h2>\n![\"AWS](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/AWS_Graviton4_and_AWS_Trainium2_prototype.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAWS Graviton4 and AWS Trainium (prototype). Image Credits:<\/strong> Business Wire<\/p>\n<\/div>\nAmazon unveiled the latest generation of its chips for model training and inferencing<\/a> (i.e. running trained models). Kyle writes that Amazon already discussed AWS Trainium2, designed to deliver up to 4x better performance and 2x better energy efficiency than the first-generation Trainium. The second chip was announced this morning, called the Graviton4, is intended for inferencing. The fourth generation in Amazon\u2019s Graviton chip family (as implied by the \u201c4\u201d appended to \u201cGraviton\u201d), it\u2019s distinct from Amazon\u2019s other inferencing chip, Inferentia<\/a>. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\nAmazon S3 Express One Zone<\/h2>\n
Amazon has a major update to its S3 object storage service called Amazon S3 Express One Zone<\/a>, a new high-performance and low latency tier for S3. Frederic reports that One Zone will offer a major performance improvement for data-intensive applications, including AI\/ML training, financial modeling and high-performance computing. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\nThree new serverless offerings<\/h2>\n
Amazon announced three new serverless offerings<\/a> to make it easier to manage Aurora, ElastiCache and Redshift serverless services. Ron writes, \u201cBecause each of these options is serverless, it means that Amazon manages all of the hardware in the background, and delivers just the right amount of resources you need, scaling up when needed without IT having to deal with all of the back-end management work.\u201d Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\nAmazon One palm-scanning expands from stores to security<\/h2>\n![\"Amazon](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Amazon-One-Enterprise_AOE_Office-Entry_hand-hover_alt-person-4-e1701169559480.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAmazon One Enterprise. Image Credits:<\/strong> Amazon<\/p>\n<\/div>\nAWS lifted the lid on a new palm-scanning identity service that allows companies to authenticate people when entering physical premises. Paul reports that Amazon One Enterprise builds on the company\u2019s existing Amazon One offering, which it debuted back in 2020<\/a>\u00a0to enable biometric payments in\u00a0Amazon\u2019s own surveillance-powered cashierless stores<\/a>. Visitors to Amazon Go stores can associate their payment card with their palm print, allowing them to enter the store and complete their transaction by hovering their hand over a scanner. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\nNew thin client virtual desktop environment devices<\/h2>\n![\"AWS](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/aws-thin-client.jpg\")
<\/p>\nImage Credits:<\/strong> Amazon<\/p>\n<\/div>\nAmazon launched new $195 devices<\/a> that allow enterprise users to access virtual desktop environments, like Amazon WorkSpaces, over the internet. Sarah writes that the devices are housed in Fire TV Cube hardware \u2014 a decision Amazon made to leverage existing expertise from the arm of the retail giant that makes streaming media players. The company explained its decision to build new hardware came from customer feedback about wanting to lower IT spending by replacing desktops and laptops with less expensive hardware. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Amazon Web Services<\/span> is live in Las Vegas for its AWS re:Invent event, which kicked off November 27 and runs until December 1. We expect a rapid-fire stream of announcements and unveilings of recent things it\u2019s been working on, particularly given the increased competition for cloud providers to meet the rise of AI with compelling offers for customers. AWS CEO Adam Selipsky\u2019s keynote<\/a> set the tone for the event, making it clear that AWS is in a position to defend its longstanding lead, and it\u2019s deploying AI tools and services to continue being the top large cloud provider in the market.<\/p>\n We know you might not have time to watch the whole thing<\/span>, so we\u2019re taking that on for the next few days and will deliver quick hits of the biggest news as they are announced, all in an easy-to-digest, easy-to-skim list featuring on-the-ground reporting from editors and cloud experts Frederic Lardinois<\/a> and Ron Miller<\/a>, along with contributions from the wider TechCrunch team. Here we go!<\/span><\/p>\n Stay tuned for more product updates, announcements and analysis.<\/i><\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> AWS<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Another new tool is Neptune Analytics<\/a>, which combines the best of both worlds: graph and vector databases. Ron reports that the new service helps customers analyze existing Neptune graph data or data lakes on top of S3 storage, taking advantage of vector search to find key insights. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n AWS Clean Rooms ML helps you to unlock various opportunities for you to generate insights.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Amazon\u2019s launching a privacy-preserving service that lets AWS customers deploy \u201clookalike\u201d AI models trained for one-off company-company collaborations called Clean Rooms ML<\/a>, which Kyle writes is an offshoot of AWS\u2019 existing Clean Rooms<\/a> product and removes the need for AWS customers to share proprietary data with their outside partners to build, train and deploy AI models. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> AWS<\/p>\n<\/div>\n From Amazon\u2019s AWS cloud arm comes the SageMaker HyperPod<\/a>, a new purpose-built service for training and fine-tuning large language models. Frederic spoke with Ankur Mehrotra, AWS\u2019 general manager for SageMaker, ahead of today\u2019s announcement, who said, \u201cSageMaker HyperPod gives you the ability to create a distributed cluster with accelerated instances that\u2019s optimized for disputed training. It gives you the tools to efficiently distribute models and data across your cluster \u2014 and that speeds up your training process.\u201d Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> AWS<\/p>\n<\/div>\n You read that right, Amazon is joining the ranks of other big techs in finally releasing its own image generator<\/a>. Kyle reports that the Titan Image Generator is now available in preview for AWS customers and can create new images when given a text description or customize existing images. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n Amazon Q is Amazon\u2019s new AI-powered chatbot. Image Credits:<\/strong> Amazon<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The big announcement for the day was Amazon Q, an AI-powered chatbot for AWS customers<\/a>. During his keynote, AWS CEO Adam Selipsky described it as being able to \u201ceasily chat, generate content and take actions. It\u2019s all informed by an understanding of your systems, your data repositories and your operations.\u201d Kyle reports that Q is trained on 17 years\u2019 worth of AWS knowledge and will go beyond just answering questions \u2014 it will also do things like understand the nuances of app workloads and suggest AWS solutions and products for apps that only run for a few seconds. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n AWS Guardrails for Amazon Bedrock. Image Credits:<\/strong> Amazon<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The new Guardrails for Amazon Bedrock tool lets companies define and limit the kinds of language a model can use. For example, define topics that are out of bounds for the model, so it simply doesn\u2019t answer irrelevant questions, Ron writes. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n AWS Graviton4 and AWS Trainium (prototype). Image Credits:<\/strong> Business Wire<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Amazon unveiled the latest generation of its chips for model training and inferencing<\/a> (i.e. running trained models). Kyle writes that Amazon already discussed AWS Trainium2, designed to deliver up to 4x better performance and 2x better energy efficiency than the first-generation Trainium. The second chip was announced this morning, called the Graviton4, is intended for inferencing. The fourth generation in Amazon\u2019s Graviton chip family (as implied by the \u201c4\u201d appended to \u201cGraviton\u201d), it\u2019s distinct from Amazon\u2019s other inferencing chip, Inferentia<\/a>. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n Amazon has a major update to its S3 object storage service called Amazon S3 Express One Zone<\/a>, a new high-performance and low latency tier for S3. Frederic reports that One Zone will offer a major performance improvement for data-intensive applications, including AI\/ML training, financial modeling and high-performance computing. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n Amazon announced three new serverless offerings<\/a> to make it easier to manage Aurora, ElastiCache and Redshift serverless services. Ron writes, \u201cBecause each of these options is serverless, it means that Amazon manages all of the hardware in the background, and delivers just the right amount of resources you need, scaling up when needed without IT having to deal with all of the back-end management work.\u201d Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n Amazon One Enterprise. Image Credits:<\/strong> Amazon<\/p>\n<\/div>\n AWS lifted the lid on a new palm-scanning identity service that allows companies to authenticate people when entering physical premises. Paul reports that Amazon One Enterprise builds on the company\u2019s existing Amazon One offering, which it debuted back in 2020<\/a>\u00a0to enable biometric payments in\u00a0Amazon\u2019s own surveillance-powered cashierless stores<\/a>. Visitors to Amazon Go stores can associate their payment card with their palm print, allowing them to enter the store and complete their transaction by hovering their hand over a scanner. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Amazon<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Amazon launched new $195 devices<\/a> that allow enterprise users to access virtual desktop environments, like Amazon WorkSpaces, over the internet. Sarah writes that the devices are housed in Fire TV Cube hardware \u2014 a decision Amazon made to leverage existing expertise from the arm of the retail giant that makes streaming media players. The company explained its decision to build new hardware came from customer feedback about wanting to lower IT spending by replacing desktops and laptops with less expensive hardware. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\nWednesday, Nov. 29<\/h2>\n
Neptune Analytics<\/h2>\n
Clean Rooms ML<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\nSageMaker HyperPod<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\nAWS Titan image generator<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nTuesday, Nov. 28<\/h2>\n
Amazon Q: An AI-powered chatbot<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nGuardrails for Amazon Bedrock<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nNew AWS Trainium chips for AI models<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\nAmazon S3 Express One Zone<\/h2>\n
Three new serverless offerings<\/h2>\n
Amazon One palm-scanning expands from stores to security<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\nNew thin client virtual desktop environment devices<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"Read](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/aws-reinvent-2023-banner.jpg\")
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