Jeff Bezos Is a CEO Again

Jeff Bezos has attached himself to a new artificial intelligence startup where he'll serve as co-chief executive—his first formal operational role since stepping down as Amazon CEO in 2021. The company, Project Prometheus, has a staggering $6.2 billion in funding, some of it from Bezos himself, making it one of the best-financed startups in the world, per the New York Times. It's entering a crowded and competitive field, aiming to develop advanced AI for the engineering and manufacturing of computers, motor vehicles, and spacecraft. The Amazon and Blue Origin founder will share leadership duties with Vik Bajaj, a scientist with a background at Google X who previously co-founded Verily and Foresite Labs.

Project Prometheus is part of a broader trend of new companies seeking to apply AI to physical tasks and scientific discovery. Companies like OpenAI and Meta are already developing AI to accelerate work in the physical sciences, while startups such as Periodic Labs are focused on using AI to speed up discoveries in physics and chemistry. Project Prometheus plans to develop AI models that can learn from the physical world and perform experiments autonomously, potentially accelerating scientific progress in a variety of fields. The company has already hired nearly 100 employees, including researchers from top AI firms such as OpenAI, DeepMind, and Meta, the Times reports.