Amazon just revealed Nova Act, an AI that can browse the web like a human - minus the tendency to get distracted by cat videos. The tool emerged from Amazon's secretive San Francisco AGI lab, where former OpenAI veterans are cooking up superintelligent systems.
Nova Act takes control of web browsers to perform basic tasks. It fills out forms, picks dates, and might even order your lunch. Amazon claims it beats similar tools from OpenAI and Anthropic, scoring 94% on screen interaction tests. They skipped some common benchmarks, though. How convenient.
David Luan, who jumped ship from OpenAI to lead Amazon's AGI efforts, sees Nova Act as more than just a digital errand runner. He envisions agents as stepping stones toward artificial general intelligence. His definition of AGI? "An AI system that can help you do anything a human does on a computer." No pressure there.
The lab's approach prioritizes reliability over flash. Luan compares it to self-driving cars - they need to handle weird situations before hitting the streets solo. Most current AI agents combine language models with human-written rules, making them as rigid as a corporate dress code. Nova Act takes a different path, using reinforcement learning to build better judgment.
Amazon's timing isn't random. The company plans to integrate Nova Act into Alexa+, its upcoming AI-enhanced voice assistant. Imagine Alexa actually understanding you on the first try - and booking your oven repair without ordering three washing machines by mistake.
The company just launched nova.amazon.com, where developers can access the Nova Act SDK. It lets them build agent prototypes and define exactly when humans should step in. Because sometimes you don't want your AI assistant freestyle shopping on your behalf.
Amazon entered the AI race late but is making up for lost time. Early AI agents from competitors tend to move at the speed of bureaucracy and make rookie mistakes. Nova Act promises to be different - though we've all heard that one before.
Why this matters:
Amazon's late entry to the AI race might actually pay off - they watched others stumble first
The real winner could be Alexa, which might finally graduate from glorified kitchen timer to actually useful assistant
