Amazon has unveiled a new AI model that can perform tasks including shopping online, controlling a web browser, and searching the biking distance to a train station.
The tech giant has released a research preview of the ‘Amazon Nova Act SDK’ on new website Nova.amazon.com, allowing developers to experiment with an early version of the new model.
Amazon’s Nova foundation models are a new generation of foundation models that are trained to perform actions within a web browser.
“The AI models seek to offer real-world value solutions by simplifying the lives of shoppers, sellers, advertisers and enterprises,” said the company.
Powered by an early version of a customised Amazon Nova model, Act SDK allows developers to build agents that can complete tasks in a web browser, enabling developers to break down complex workflows into atomic commands including search, checkout, answer questions about the screen.
The model also enables developers to add more detailed instructions to those commands where needed (e.g., “don’t accept the insurance upsell”) and call APIs.
In a video released by Amazon, technical staff member at the tech giant Vishal Vora demonstrated how to put together a workflow and instruct the AI model on ordering the same delivery from a restaurant on a weekly basis.
The Amazon Nova foundation models were first introduced at tech event re:Invent in December 2024. The series currently includes three models (Nova Micro, Lite, and Pro) that generate text from different modalities, and two additional models for generating high-quality images (Nova Canvas) and videos (Nova Reel) from text and image input.
Previous genAI applications from Amazon include Alexa+, Amazon Q and Rufus.
Commenting on the launch of the new Nova website, Rohit Prasad, senior vice president of Amazon Artificial General Intelligence said: “Nova.amazon.com puts the power of Amazon’s frontier intelligence into the hands of every developer and tech enthusiast, making it easier than ever to explore the capabilities of Amazon Nova.”
Amazon added that the experience seeks to inspire builders so that they can quickly test their ideas with Nova models and then implement them at scale in Amazon Bedrock.
Amazon Bedrock is a fully managed service designed to help developers build and scale generative AI applications using foundation models (FMs) from leading AI companies like AI21 Labs, Anthropic, Cohere, Stability AI, and Amazon itself.
It offers a variety of capabilities, including fine-tuning models with data, creating managed agents for complex tasks, and integrating generative AI into applications without needing to manage infrastructure.
“It is an exciting step forward for rapid exploration with AI, including bleeding-edge capabilities such as the Nova Act SDK for building agents that take actions on the web. We’re excited to see what they build and to hear their useful feedback,” added Prasad.
