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Amazon launches Amazon AI to bring its machine learning smarts to developers

Swathi Aravind

Amazon announced three new artificial intelligence-related tool kits for developers building apps on Amazon Web Services.

Amazon showed how developers can use three new services — Amazon Lex, Amazon Polly, Amazon Recognition — to build artificial intelligence features into apps for platforms like Slack, Facebook Messenger, ZenDesk, and others at company’s AWS re:invent in Las Vegas.

The idea is to let developers utilize the machine learning algorithms and technology that Amazon has already created for its own processes and services like Alexa. Instead of developing their own AI software, AWS customers can simply use an API call or the AWS Management Console to incorporate AI features into their own apps.

AWS CEO Andy Jassy noted that Amazon has been building AI and machine learning technology for 20 years and said that there are now thousands of people dedicated to AI in our business. Now the company is opening up the back-end infrastructure to third-party developers. Three services were announced today and more are coming next year.

Amazon Polly is available today in US East (N. Virginia), US East (Ohio), US West (Oregon), and EU (Dublin) Regions, and will expand to other regions in the coming months. Amazon Rekognition is available in US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), and EU (Dublin) Regions, and will also expand. Developers can sign up for a preview of Amazon Lex.