Jeff Bezos’ Latest AI Project Subtly Took Over a Computing Startup Focused on Agency

Following the publication of The New York Times article, Guss, Ozair, and approximately thirty other individuals amended their LinkedIn profiles to reflect their connection with the Bezos initiative. Many among these individuals are also associated with Foresite Labs.

Information regarding Prometheus is still limited. Its official name, founding date, and location have not been disclosed publicly. However, the dinner hosted by Bajaj in June offered additional insights.

At least two other notable attendees that evening, including former Nvidia senior research scientist Kamyar Azizzadenesheli, quietly became part of Prometheus earlier this year, as shown by their updated LinkedIn profiles.

Ashish Vaswani and Jakob Uszkoreit, two ex-Google researchers recognized for coauthoring a prominent AI paper, were unable to attend the dinner. Nevertheless, both now serve as founding advisers to Prometheus while managing their own startups, according to LinkedIn information and a source familiar with the situation. None of the researchers have replied to requests for comment.

Designed for Speed

Ozair founded General Agents last year, and the San Francisco startup launched its first technology this past April. Touted as “a real-time computer pilot,” Ace takes control of a computer and executes tasks based on user instructions. It falls within a category of tools known as computer agents in the AI sector, which can automate daily tasks across multiple applications on a laptop.

A demonstration video from the launch showcases Ace downloading an image from Google and sending it through iMessage in less than 15 seconds.

The exact role of Ace within Prometheus’ strategy remains unclear. Recent releases of Ace have been noted as recently as this month, according to publicly available data from General Agents. The company’s website and job listings are still active, and the leader of a team in India aiding in Ace’s training has also become part of Prometheus, as indicated by their LinkedIn profile.

Harsha Abegunasekara, cofounder and CEO of Donely, a competitor to Ace, mentioned that he learned about the General Agents acquisition from an investor in Ozair’s startup. The acquisition has produced mixed reactions for Donely. Some potential investors view the departure of a respected competitor as beneficial, while others express concern about competing against Bezos if Ace becomes integral to Prometheus’ offerings.

“There’s something significant for Prometheus in acquiring the entire company,” Abegunasekara states. “What General Agents excelled at early on is speed—Ace operates on your computer at lightning speed. We’ve been focusing on that for six months and haven’t succeeded yet.”