AIBRIEF
Amazon is phasing out its Nova line of in house AI models, including the Premier, Omni, Reel, and Canvas systems, to concentrate compute on one next generation model under researcher Pieter Abbeel.
Amazon is retiring most of its in-house Nova AI models and concentrating engineering and compute on a single next-generation system, according to a Business Insider report. The deprecated lineup includes the high-end Nova Premier and Nova Omni, the Reel video-generation model, and the Canvas image-generation model. The remaining Nova portfolio is Nova 2 Sonic, Nova 2 Lite, Nova Forge, and Nova Act.
The new effort, internally called Frontier Model Research (FMR), is led by researcher Pieter Abbeel, who joined Amazon through its 2023 acquisition of AI robotics startup Covariant. A flagship foundation model from FMR is expected to debut at Amazon's re:Invent conference later this year and could still emerge under the Nova brand.
Employees described the deprecated models as "KTLO" (keep the lights on), meaning supported for existing customers but no longer a development priority. The reorganization also shut down Amazon's AGI Lab, which Business Insider reported was created in 2024.
The cuts landed alongside layoffs in Amazon's AGI organization, which had been led by Rohit Prasad until his December 2025 departure and now sits under SVP Peter DeSantis. Employees said DeSantis's strategy concentrates talent and scarce compute on fewer flagship-model efforts rather than a portfolio of model families.
In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson said: "AI models remain one of the most important things we're working on, and that hasn't changed," and that the company "continually evolves its model lineup based on customer need with clear migration paths."