News: 0180106621

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Bezos Returns To CEO Role With AI Startup Project Prometheus (nytimes.com)

(Monday November 17, 2025 @11:41AM (msmash) from the back-to-work dept.)


Jeff Bezos has founded an AI startup called Project Prometheus and will [1]serve as its co-chief executive . This is his first formal operational role since stepping down as chief executive of Amazon in July 2021. The company has raised $6.2 billion in funding, The New York Times reports, partly from Bezos. The funding makes Project Prometheus one of the most well-financed early-stage startups in the world.

Bezos's co-founder and co-chief executive is Vik Bajaj, a physicist and chemist who worked closely with Google co-founder Sergey Brin at Google X. Dr. Bajaj was among the founders of Verily in 2015 and co-founded Foresite Labs in 2018. He recently left that position to focus on Project Prometheus. The company is focusing on AI for engineering and manufacturing in computers, aerospace, and automobiles. The startup has already hired nearly 100 employees, the report said. Researchers from OpenAI, DeepMind, and Meta are among the hires. Project Prometheus is building AI systems that learn from physical experiments rather than just analyzing digital text.



[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/technology/bezos-project-prometheus.html



working (Score:1)

by roman_mir ( 125474 )

Just shows that there is no amount of money that replaces some sort of meaning in one's life. Bezos will treat any business correctly, obviously he will be looking for maximum efficiency, which is not easy to do when you are a billionaire, after all, any issues that can be sold by throwing money at it he can really solve this way, which may be the wrong approach for a new business that needs to become useful by standing on its own 2 legs.

But it is just interesting to observe, a guy with all the money and a

Re: (Score:2)

by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 )

"Working" is an entirely different prospect when it's optional, when you can choose to walk away any day, any time with zero consequences. You won't go hungry, you won't have to worry about your rent, nobodies gonna give you shit if you want to roll in around 11:30 this Monday.

Really this scenario is the only legit "right to work" that exists, when you are wealthy enough to choose to work and where and how.

Re: (Score:1)

by roman_mir ( 125474 )

My point is that a guy with all the money still chooses to do it, shows that people lose themselves when they have nothing to do that involves more than just enjoyment.

Re: (Score:2)

by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 )

> people lose themselves when they have nothing to do that involves more than just enjoyment.

Having that amount of money gives you the privilege of being able to sort that out for yourself, he gets to decide between enjoyment and doing literally anythign else he wants.

It's something 99.99% of us will never have the option of experiencing, we are effectively denied that choice, my point is a person with a billion-with-a-B dollars has an experience with life that is inhuman to the rest of the planet.

Best Bros. (Score:2)

by LondoMollari ( 172563 )

Note the symmetry: Musk gets pissed at OpenAI founds xAI.

Bezos watches Musk found xAI founds Project Prometheus six months later.

Whenever one of them moves, the other one is lurking in the rear-view mirror with a checkbook.

Best frienemies, ever.

The one AI product we all need: (Score:1)

by greytree ( 7124971 )

Bezos needs to have his company make an agent that can predict the exact date when AI shares will crash.

I'm calling: 20260102 09:00:00Z

Prometheus? (Score:4, Interesting)

by dvice ( 6309704 )

Prometheus was a titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans. Because of this Zeus tied Prometheus to a rock where an eagle would eat his liver every day, a torture that never ends.

I am curious. Did they pick the name in honor of a thief, or is it a prophesy of how the project will end.

Re: (Score:2)

by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 )

Considering the trend of defense contractors naming themselves after Tolkien I think to these guys it's just as simple "It sounds cool and there is a metaphor and symbolism somewhere I can't be assed to really think about beyond the thin film of surface tension"

Re: (Score:2)

by mrspoonsi ( 2955715 )

I for one welcome our new AI robot overlords.

Re: (Score:2)

by mccalli ( 323026 )

The torture did end - he was eventually freed by Hercules.

It is imperative when flying coach that you restrain any tendency toward
the vividly imaginative. For although it may momentarily appear to be the
case, it is not at all likely that the cabin is entirely inhabited by
crying babies smoking inexpensive domestic cigars.
-- Fran Lebowitz, "Social Studies"