Amazon Introduces Nova Act, an Artificial Intelligence Browser
Amazon has started testing a new artificial intelligence model called "Nova Act," which is intended to carry out tasks like online shopping inside the browser.
The company is currently making its new model available only to developers as part of a "research preview" and is working to expand access to other AI models in the Nova series through a new web portal, making them easier to find and use.
Similar to OpenAI's Operator agent, the Nova Act model can conduct web searches, make purchases, and respond to questions about on-screen content. It can also carry out tasks in accordance with a predetermined schedule. Additionally, it can comprehend complex instructions, like avoiding extra insurance offers when making a purchase.
Amazon has acknowledged that it has already started integrating certain tasks into the more sophisticated version of its smart assistant, Alexa Plus, even though Nova Act is currently only accessible to developers.
The first product from Amazon's Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) lab, Nova Act, aims to create AI agents that can handle complicated technical processes or multi-step tasks like wedding planning in order to increase productivity.
In the face of increasing competition from firms like OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic, and Google that are betting on offering assistants that can complete tasks automatically, Amazon is attempting to provide AI agents that do more than just respond to inquiries or produce visual content.
Nova Act is one of five models that Amazon announced in December of last year, including models for creating images and videos and three models that specialize in language comprehension.
Amazon markets the Nova series by emphasizing its speed and affordability, asserting that using it lowers costs by at least 75% when compared to other options, in contrast to some competitors who concentrate on providing ultra-powerful models.
To expand access, Amazon has launched a new website that allows developers and users to explore the capabilities of these models, answer their questions, or generate content directly.
Previously, these models could only be accessed through Amazon Bedrock, the company's cloud-based artificial intelligence platform, which also allows users to access other models from DeepSeek, Anthropic, and Meta.
According to Rohit Prasad, senior vice president of general artificial intelligence at Amazon, "we created this site to allow developers to rapidly test their ideas using Nova models and then scale them through Amazon Bedrock."
While those interested in utilizing Nova Act's capabilities can register to download the software development kit (SDK) and start testing the model in practice, developers can test it out on the new website.