AWS CEO’s 6 Boldest Re:Invent Remarks On New AI, Chips And ‘Other Clouds’

Here are CEO Adam Selipsky’s biggest statements he made on stage during AWS re:Invent 2023 regarding new AI products, chips and its lead over other cloud providers.

AWS CEO Adam Selipsky took the stage in front of tens of thousands of AWS re:Invent 2023 attendees today to tout the company’s new generative AI innovation, chips and take a few jabs at the competitors.

“Others would have you think that all clouds are the same, but it’s just not true,” said Selipsky, during his keynote presentation. “Having the broadest and the deepest set of capabilities matters.”

Selipsky spoke at length about new AWS products launched including its new generative AI chatbot Amazon Q, its next-level GenAI security offering Guardrails for Amazon Bedrock as well as the cloud giant’s new Graviton 4 processors.

“GenAI is the next step in artificial intelligence,” said Selipsky. “And it’s going to reinvent every application that we interact with work and at home.”

AWS re:Invent 2023

Approximately 50,000 customers, partners, business leaders and technologies flocked to Las Vegas this week for the Seattle-based company’s annual re:Invent conference.

“I’m so happy to be here. For the 50,000 of you here in Las Vegas and more than 300,000 watching around the world, thank you everybody for joining,” AWS CEO said to kick off his keynote.

AWS is currently on a $92 billion run rate and the global market share leader of cloud computing. The cloud behemoth launched a slew of new generative AI products at the tech conference include Amazon Q, a new generative AI chatbot designed for businesses—not general consumers—that is available on the AWS cloud platform.

“So critically, other providers have launched tools without data privacy and security capabilities which virtually every enterprise requires. Many CIOs actually ban the use of a lot of the most popular AI chat systems inside their organization,” said Selipsky.

AWS CEO also touted his company’s most “powerful” processor ever made, Graviton 4 as well as the “fastest object storage” offering in cloud, S3 Express One Zone.

“We’re now in our fourth generation in just five years. Other cloud providers have not even delivered on their first server processors yet,” said Selipsky.

CRN breaks down the six boldest statements AWS’ CEO made on stage during his re:Invent 2023 keynote that looks to propel AWS into a dominant AI force in 2024 and beyond.

Amazon Q: A ‘New Type’ Of GenAI ‘Assistant Designed To Work For You At Work’

Think about generative AI chat applications. These days, it seems like just about everyone is experimenting with it, right? What the early providers in the space have done is really exciting and it’s genuinely super useful for consumers. But in a lot of ways, these applications don’t really work at work.

Their general knowledge and their capabilities are great, but they don’t know your company. They don’t know your data, or your customers, or your operations. This limits how useful their suggestions can be. They also don’t know much about who you are. They don’t know your role and preferences, what information you use, what you do and don’t have access to.

So critically, other providers have launched tools without data privacy and security capabilities which virtually every enterprise requires. Many CIOs actually ban the use of a lot of the most popular AI chat systems inside their organization. Just ask any Chief Information Security Officer, CISO—you can’t bolt-on security after the fact and expect it to work as well. It’s much, much better to build security into the fundamental design of the technology.

So when we set out to build generative AI applications, we knew we had to address these gaps. It had to be built in from the very start. That’s why today I’m really proud and excited to announce Amazon Q, a new type of generative AI powered assistant designed to work for you at work.

We’d like to answer questions quickly with natural language interactions. You can easily chat, generate content, take actions—it’s all informed by understanding your systems, your data repositories, your operations.

Graviton4 Is ‘The Most Energy Efficient Chip We Have Ever Built’

We’re relentless about innovation and we continue to push the envelope. I’m excited to announce the latest generation of our Graviton processor: AWS Graviton 4.

Graviton 4 is the most energy efficient chip that we have ever built, with 50 percent more cores and 75 percent more memory than with the Graviton 3. Graviton 4 chips perform 30 percent faster than Graviton3. It performs even better for certain workloads: like 40 percent faster for database applications, and 45 percent faster for Java applications.

We were the first to develop and offer our own server processors. We’re now in our fourth generation in just five years. Other cloud providers have not even delivered on their first server processors yet.

We’re also announcing the preview of our first instance based on Graviton4. our R8G Instances for EC2. … R8G instances provides the best price performance and energy efficiency for memory intensive workloads. And there are many, many more Graviton 4 instance coming.

Guardrails for Amazon Bedrock Will ‘Safeguard Your Generative AI Applications’

We’ve been actively participating, and a lot of groups have come together, to discuss responsible AI issues. Earlier this year, I joined [U.S.] President [Joe] Biden and other leaders. We’ve made a series of voluntary commitments promoting safe, secure and transparent development of AI technology.

We’ve been working hard here, and today, we’re announcing Guardrails for Amazon Bedrock.

It has capabilities to safeguard your generative AI applications with more responsible AI policies. To create Guardrails, Bedrock configurates through credentials to enter natural language description of the topics that you want the model for. … You can also use Guardrails for agents. So now you have a consistent level of protection across all of your GenAI development activities.

So we’re approaching the whole concept of generative AI in a fundamentally different way because we understand what it takes to reinvent how you’re going to build with this technology.

Whether you’re migrating enterprise applications, looking to be the next hot startup, working to develop and deploy your GenAI strategy—our approach remains the same: customer obsession, innovation, and a long-term view of joint success.

‘The Fastest Object Storage In The Cloud’; The New Amazon S3 Express One Zone

I’m excited to announce Amazon S3 Express One—the new S3 storage class.

Amazon S3 Express One Zone uses purpose-built hardware and software to accelerate data processing. It also gives you the option to actually choose your AZ (AWS Availability Zone) for the first time, and then you rate your frequently accessed data next to your high performance compute resources to minimize latency.

So Amazon S3 Express One supports millions of requests per minute, with consistent single digit millisecond latency—the fastest object storage in the cloud. And up to 10 times faster than S3 standard storage.

Now, the faster data processing lets you save up to 60 percent on your compute costs as well for workloads that require high performance outcomes. And the data access costs also are 50 percent lower than S3 standard. So you can run these workloads at a much, much lower cost.

So 17 years ago, S3 reinvented storage by launching the first cloud service for AWS. With S3 Express One Zone, you can see S3 continuing to change how developers use storage.

All Clouds Are The Same? ‘It’s Just Not True’

Others would have you think that all clouds are the same, but it’s just not true. … Our global infrastructure was fundamentally distinct from other cloud providers and that is still true today.

Having the broadest and the deepest set of capabilities matters. Like having three times the number of data centers compared to the next largest cloud provider, which makes a huge difference in capacity and availability.

Also having 60 percent more services and over 40 percent more features than the next closest cloud provider, so you can innovate without constraints. We reinvent, so that you can reinvent.

We still have the broadest and deepest set of capabilities today. And we’re the most secure and the most reliable.

Over 80 Percent Of Unicorns Run On AWS; ‘The Cloud Is For Anyone’

It’s not just global enterprises using [AWS]. The most promising up and comers also continue to choose AWS as well.

The vast majority of unicorns, over 80 percent, choose AWS. Like Wiz, a cloud security company and great AWS partner. Wiz is the world’s largest cyber security unicorn and fastest SaaS company to reach a $10 billion valuation.

Customers of every size, every industry, every region—organizations you might have never imagined would rely on the cloud for innovating in AWS. … Enterprises, startups, small and medium sized businesses, universities, community colleges, government agencies, nonprofit—the cloud is for anyone.

Our customers are solving big problems, serving critical needs, and dreaming up the world’s next big thing. They count on us to be secure, to be reliable, to innovate rapidly, to delight their customers in enabling new ways to grow their businesses--all on AWS.