Jeff Bezos' AI Startup Aims To Build an 'Artificial General Engineer' (theverge.com)
- Reference: 0183774104
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/26/06/12/2233242/jeff-bezos-ai-startup-aims-to-build-an-artificial-general-engineer
- Source link: https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/949005/jeff-bezos-prometheus-artificial-general-engineer
> The NYT first reported on Prometheus [2]last November , but now Bezos is sharing more information about the startup after a $12 billion funding round, putting the company at a $41 billion valuation. Bezos serves as co-CEO of Prometheus alongside Vik Bajaj, who co-founded Alphabet's health-focused research group, Verily. The startup currently has around 150 employees.
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> The tools Prometheus intends to build could help develop physical products across several industries, including robotics, drug design, and manufacturing, the [3]NYT reports . "Blue Origin is a perfect example of a company that could benefit from the tools that Prometheus is building," Bezos tells the NYT. "Any company that is building sophisticated devices -- like rocket engines -- would benefit greatly from this kind of technology."
[1] https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/949005/jeff-bezos-prometheus-artificial-general-engineer
[2] https://slashdot.org/story/25/11/17/1340210/bezos-returns-to-ceo-role-with-ai-startup-project-prometheus
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/technology/bezos-prometheus-ai-engineer.html
AI generates a LOT of words that need to be read.. (Score:2)
In my experience with AI tools, they generate a LOT of text that you have to read if you want to understand what it's trying to do. I can't imagine a group of managers reading through 3000 pages of AI output every day, which is what would have to happen to know if your 'AI Engineer' is doing stuff right.
Otherwise, are you willing to spend billions on projects where you don't know what was actually done?
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If you ask for a short summary, it can do that. What I would want it to do... is for me to explain in English what I want a board to do, what size I need it in, and other parameters. It can lay out a PCB, order the parts, Send the gerbers to PCB to a board shop, and have a working board in a week. Right now, an experienced Engineer should review the schematics and the layout, and give feedback to the AI, but there will come a day when that Engineer will be redundant the way things are going. As for s
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The lone wolf consultant probably won't be able to afford the service. Without it taking care of the gating items which require buy in from all stakeholders in a large corporation, it will output a sub-optimal design. The communication overhead to achieve buy-in and resolving problems with overcoming problems tool vendor software, and debugging, is what takes up most of an engineer's time today in a large company. AI which attacks this communication burden along with handling the boring and repetitive aspe
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AI true believers always saying what it will do not what it can do.
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Didn't you read the summary?
> Bezos tells the NYT. "Any company that is building sophisticated devices -- like rocket engines -- would benefit greatly from this kind of technology."
This yet-uncreated-technology has perfectly understood capabilities, and will benefit you greatly.
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> Otherwise, are you willing to spend billions on projects where you don't know what was actually done?
[1]Funny you should mention that [yahoo.com].
[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/one-company-spent-half-billion-183000167.html
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> I can't imagine a group of managers reading through 3000 pages of AI output every day..
Any PHB worth their hair points knows the 'right' thing to do in that scenario is to pack all that output deep into the ChatGPT bong bowl and hit Enter, sparking the Flame of Delusion..
..which of course makes the executives cheer..
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Otherwise, the executives will have to admit they are wrong, which is career suicide. If you admit you were wrong, another executive can use that admission to backstab you.
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> I can't imagine a group of managers reading through 3000 pages of AI output every day,
I dunno, it could be kind of funny watching them trying to get a machine to make sense of reality.
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Reading 3000 pages of AI output? To overextend the metonym, Is that better or worse than having your liver eaten by an eagle every day?
And who will be the accountability sink (Score:3)
when the bridge or building collapses, or many die due to a flaw in a drug developed by these AGE's?
I bet it won't be anyone in this new startup due to the corporate veil.
Re: And who will be the accountability sink (Score:2)
The company will be, not an individual
Lathe of Heaven. (Score:1)
You want to make the genie that makes whatever you want.
Based on AI flaws so far... (Score:2)
You'll end up with the worst employee you've ever had. A narcissist who sounds completely compelling but is completely wrong, or just wrong enough that it sounds right, but the load calculation is off by a small factor, no one else catches it and the bridge fails under a certain condition, someone dies.
There's no intelligence when it's just mindlessly trying to slot the right word in the next position. I realize specialized AIs are starting to have some particular skills, but it still seems so untrustwort
Drug discovery part is BS (Score:3)
I'm an organic chemist. I've worked in drug discovery for 45 years. It's hard. Jeff Bezos ain't nowhere close to figuring it out. I don't know about the other parts, but I know for sure the drug discovery stuff is bullshit.
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Well then, you must know better than most people that when you are on the right drugs it not only seems possible, but easy!
Funding Round? (Score:1)
Why does he need to do that? Just in the other thread I've been sternly assured these single men *must* have their hundreds of billions of dollars so they can fund these new ventures, otherwise how on Earth would they do it?!?! Go out and seek other people with money to put towards it?! Well at rate we may as well be commies amirite?!
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Why would he spend his own money?
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Exactly, so why does anyone need hundreds of billions of dollars of it? Tax that shit into the ground.
1000 millionaires will make wiser investment choices than one billionaire. After all, that's a bedrock principle of capitalism, the market is wise.
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Exactly. You get rich by convincing others to spend their money.
Realms of Fantasy (Score:2)
Since ChatGPT3 we've left behind the financial reality of stocks being worth what their expected returns are over time, so either the company pays dividends or gets bought and people that own the stock get actual money back for the money they paid in, and we've now reaching the stage of orbit where everything is just a complete fantasy designed to goose more money out of people that somehow haven't run out spare cash to throw at stocks yet.
AI hasn't replaced coders, despite it being declared so. AI has tem
Re: Realms of Fantasy (Score:2)
Might not have replaced coders but it has completely changed the job. Used to be you had to figure out what you wanted to do, then how, then do it, then tests. Now you just need the "what". The AI figures out the rest. Iterate a bit if you want changes but it's still much faster. Have an idea, prototype it in 10 minutes instead of a week.
one does not LLMply (Score:2)
Well, if I were prompting the LLM, I would simply request that it not make any mistakes.
Re: one does not LLMply (Score:3)
You're absolutely right !
I can see this. (Score:3)
Most of the proposed AI projects sound foolish to me.
But I think this could work. The trick is NOT to have gigantic expectations.
Forget about 'Design me a bridge'.
Instead think "Create a table of how much weight can a bridge Suspension bridge spanning 1 mile hold, by different construction materials."
seems dumb (Score:3)
Go for the low hanging fruit, a position that is easy to automate and consumes the largest paycheck: MBA
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[1]It's been happening [cnbc.com]:
> "The trend is expected to continue into 2026: One in five (20%) businesses are expected to use AI to flatten their organizational structure, slashing over half of current middle management positions"
I don't think AI deserves the blame, though.
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/29/middle-managers-are-getting-laid-offbut-their-role-is-more-important-than-ever-says-leadership-expert.html
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Replacing worthless people with worthless software that boils the oceans. It's not exactly progress, more of a lateral move on the stupidity track of humanity.
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They're not replacing them with software, they're just firing them. The AI is an excuse.
When the product is a hallucination ... (Score:2)
Seriously, how disconnected are these people?
Re: When the product is a hallucination ... (Score:2)
He's a billionaire, he'd have a place on [1]Elysium [imdb.com] or [2]The Aerium [fandom.com], if such places existed.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535108/
[2] https://altered-carbon.fandom.com/wiki/The_Aerium
He should fix his old-space rocket company first (Score:1)
Musk is kicking his ass every way.
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Yeah, the rocket that looked like the "flying cock and balls" out of Austin Powers.