November 21, 2023

Laying the Bedrock for Gen-AI at Amazon with AWS VP of Gen-AI Vasi Philomin

29 minutes

In this episode of Shift AI, Dr. Vasi Philomin, VP of Generative AI at Amazon Web Services (AWS) shares his experience as a visionary in machine learning and AI, his insights on applying generative AI at Amazon/AWS, and his thoughts on the ethical dimensions and future potential of AI technologies.

Highlights from Vasi’s comments, edited for context and clarity:

Early work experiences: Pioneered connected lighting at Philips Lighting with the City Touch system at Philips Lighting, enabling remote management of city lighting grids and achieving global adoption.

First Paying Job: During a summer internship at Benz in Germany, Vasi delved into computer vision for autonomous navigation.

Family Life: Growing up in a family of medical professionals, I diverged into a math-focused area of computer science, specifically AI, supported by my family despite our different professional paths.

Amazon & Generative AI: At Amazon, we identified three key themes in applying generative AI: the diversity of AI models for different use cases, the need for enterprises to differentiate themselves, and the balance of cost-effectiveness and value.

Amazon Bedrock: Bedrock aims to apply technologies like generative AI at scale. Offering choice, customization, and custom chips for improved generative AI applications.

Human and AI Congruence: AI should handle tedious tasks, allowing humans to focus on complex problems. While human oversight is still essential for verifying AI outputs and augmenting productivity.

Amazon Code Whisper: Created to address the challenges of new programming languages, Code Whisperer enhances developer productivity, with recent updates for customization to internal code bases.

Mentors: Azriel Rosenfield, my grad school advisor, taught me discipline, while Jeffery Cassis at Philips Lighting taught me a more inclusive approach to collaboration and problem-solving.

Future of Work: Generative AI is set to bring transformational productivity, surpassing the internet in impact, tackling complex problems, and augmenting human performance at an unprecedented scale.

Connect with Vasi Philomin

⁠LinkedIn⁠

Connect with Boaz Ashkenazy

⁠Twitter⁠

⁠LinkedIn⁠

Email: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Additional Resources

AWS re:Invent

GA of Amazon Bedrock (blog, press release)

AWS joins the UN summit on generative AI

AWS at the White House: Our commitment to the responsible use of AI

AWS reaffirms its commitment to responsible generative AI

...more

View all episodes

By Boaz Ashkenazy

44 ratings

November 21, 2023

Laying the Bedrock for Gen-AI at Amazon with AWS VP of Gen-AI Vasi Philomin

29 minutes

Highlights from Vasi’s comments, edited for context and clarity:

First Paying Job: During a summer internship at Benz in Germany, Vasi delved into computer vision for autonomous navigation.

Amazon Bedrock: Bedrock aims to apply technologies like generative AI at scale. Offering choice, customization, and custom chips for improved generative AI applications.

Mentors: Azriel Rosenfield, my grad school advisor, taught me discipline, while Jeffery Cassis at Philips Lighting taught me a more inclusive approach to collaboration and problem-solving.

Connect with Vasi Philomin

⁠LinkedIn⁠

Connect with Boaz Ashkenazy

⁠Twitter⁠

⁠LinkedIn⁠

Email: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Additional Resources

AWS re:Invent

GA of Amazon Bedrock (blog, press release)

AWS joins the UN summit on generative AI

AWS at the White House: Our commitment to the responsible use of AI

AWS reaffirms its commitment to responsible generative AI