Amazon's Code-Name 'Metis' AI Project Planned to Rival ChatGPT

Amazon is rumored to be working on a new AI project, code-named "Metis," to counter OpenAI's ChatGPT and its prevalence in the industry.

People familiar with the matter told Business Insider that the new Amazon AI will be an expansion of its Olympus AI model capable of generating text and images, answering conversationally, and suggesting follow-up links.

These functions are expected to provide Metis capabilities to work as an AI agent, allowing the chatbot to perform and analyze complex data tasks across Amazon's services.

The project will reportedly involve Amazon CEO Andy Jassy to oversee its development process with Artificial General Intelligence team leader Rohit Prasad heading the production.

New reports about the "Metis" projects came amid Amazon ramping up efforts to catch up with in the AI race following several failed attempts to create its own powerful AI tool comparable to OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google Gemini.

Project "Metis" is slated to launch in September, in time for Amazon's upcoming Alexa event where it announced new AI-powered improvements to the voice assistant.

Project 'Metis' Could Increase Amazon's Alexa Prices

With Amazon posing to put significant upgrades to Alexa, reports of the company revamping prices for its popular voice assistant to suit current improvements the company will introduce soon.

Business Insider has already reported back in January about Amazon's plans to roll out a new paid version for "Alexa Plus" to offer more personalized AI interaction.

And it seems these plans, after several delays and headwinds, may soon come to fruition.

Amazon Catches Up on AI Race

Plans for a more powerful AI follow Amazon's earlier declarations to speed up AI production as it plans to catch up with its top competitors.

The company has earlier been reported to pledge $150 billion in investments toward data centers as it expands the cloud capabilities of its Amazon Web Service division.

This is in addition to the Amazon-backed Anthropic expanding its lineup with notable figures in the AI industry, including several top leaders from OpenAI, to produce more powerful AI models.