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AWS CEO Matt Garman Doesn't Think AI Should Replace Junior Devs

WIRED

The head of Amazon Web Services has big plans to offer AI tools to businesses, but says that replacing coders with AI is "a non-starter for anyone who's trying to build a long-term company." Amid the breathless coverage and relentless AI hype of recent years, one of the world's biggest tech companies--Amazon--has been notably absent. Matt Garman, the CEO of Amazon Web Services, is looking to change that. At the recent AWS re:Invent conference, Garman announced a bunch of frontier AI models, as well as a tool designed to let AWS customers build models of their own. That tool, Nova Forge, allows companies to engage in what's known as custom pretraining--adding their data in the process of building a base model--which should allow for vastly more customized models that suit a given company's needs. Sure, it doesn't quite have the sexiness of a Sora 2 announcement, but that's not Garman's goal: He's less interested in mass consumer use of AI and more interested in enterprise solutions that'll integrate AI into all of AWS's offerings--and have a material impact on a corporate P&L. For this week's episode of, I caught up with Garman after AWS re:Invent to talk about what the company announced, whether he feels behind in the AI race, how he thinks about managing huge teams (and managing internal dissent), and why he's not convinced that AI is (or should be) the great job thief of our era. We always start these conversations with some very quick questions, like a warmup. If AWS had a mascot, what would it be? We have a big S3 bucket sometimes that goes around, so we'll call it that. Sorry, what is an S3 bucket? An S3 bucket is like a thing that you store your S3 objects in, but we actually have a large foam big bucket that walks around and actually looks like a paint bucket. So you do have a mascot. Well, S3 has a bucket, it has a mascot. It's probably the closest we have, and I like it. What's the most expensive mistake you've ever made? Personally, the most expensive mistake I ever made was playing basketball too long and I tore my Achilles. So that cost me about nine months of being able to walk. I probably should have known that into my thirties I was well past basketball-playing age.


Contributor: Rob Reiner reshaped how California understands and invests in children

Los Angeles Times

Things to Do in L.A. Hollywood director Rob Reiner engineered Proposition 10, a 1998 tobacco tax that created First 5 California, generating more than $11 billion for early childhood programs statewide. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . After his tragic death Sunday, the world remembers Rob Reiner as a cinematic force -- and he was one, as an unforgettable presence on the ambitious 1970s sitcom "All in the Family" and later as the director of beloved films. I came to know him differently: as a restless thinker who transformed his own life story into bold public policy, reshaping how California understands and invests in its youngest children.


Becoming a Centenarian

The New Yorker

Like The New Yorker, I was born in 1925. Somewhat to my surprise, I decided to keep a journal of my hundredth year. The author, who was born on December 17, 1925, notes that the magazine's first issue came out ten months before he did. Old age is no joke, but it can feel like one. You look everywhere for your glasses, until your wife points out that you're wearing them. I turn a hundred this year. People act as though this is an achievement, and I suppose it is, sort of. Nobody in my family has lived this long, and I've been lucky. I'm still in pretty good health, no wasting diseases or Alzheimer's, and friends and strangers comment on how young I look, which cues me to cite the three ages of man: Youth, Maturity, and You Look Great. On the other hand, I've lost so many useful abilities that my wife, Dodie, and I have taken to calling me Feebleman. Look, up in the sky! No, it's Dodie doesn't want me to know how old she is, but she's nearly three decades younger than I am, and I become ...


Letters from Our Readers

The New Yorker

Readers respond to Hannah Goldfield's Take about Anthony Bourdain and James Somers's piece about whether A.I. is thinking. Hannah Goldfield's article about "Don't Eat Before Reading This," by Anthony Bourdain, brought back memories of when I first learned of this new voice straddling the restaurant and literary worlds ( Takes, November 17th). When Bourdain's book "Kitchen Confidential" came out, in 2000, I was the general manager of an Italian restaurant at a historic five-star hotel. The staff was full of brainy foodies, and we talked about the book endlessly. We all thought Bourdain might end up being a flash in the pan, but were happy to be proved wrong.


The AI doomers feel undeterred

MIT Technology Review

But they certainly wish people were still taking their warnings really seriously. It's a weird time to be an AI doomer. This small but influential community of researchers, scientists, and policy experts believes, in the simplest terms, that AI could get so good it could be bad--very, very bad--for humanity. Though many of these people would be more likely to describe themselves as advocates for AI safety than as literal doomsayers, they warn that AI poses an existential risk to humanity. They argue that absent more regulation, the industry could hurtle toward systems it can't control. They commonly expect such systems to follow the creation of artificial general intelligence (AGI), a slippery concept generally understood as technology that can do whatever humans can do, and better. Though this is far from a universally shared perspective in the AI field, the doomer crowd has had some notable success over the past several years: helping shape AI policy coming from the Biden administration, organizing prominent calls for international "red lines " to prevent AI risks, and getting a bigger (and more influential) megaphone as some of its adherents win science's most prestigious awards. But a number of developments over the past six months have put them on the back foot.


Rob Reiner used his fame to advocate for progressive causes. 'Just a really special man. A terrible day'

Los Angeles Times

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. Rob Reiner used his fame to advocate for progressive causes. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . Rob Reiner was a Hollywood legend and also a political force, a frequent voice in progressive causes and a Democratic Party activist.


2 found dead at home of Rob Reiner

Los Angeles Times

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . Two people were found dead Sunday afternoon at the Brentwood home of director and actor Rob Reiner, multiple law enforcement sources confirmed. Margaret Stewart, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman, said the department was called to the home around 3:30 p.m. for medical aid.


California's role in shaping the fate of the Democratic Party and combating Trump on full display

Los Angeles Times

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. Former Vice President Kamala Harris addresses delegates with the Democratic National Committee at their winter meeting in downtown Los Angeles on Friday. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . California's two most prominent Democrats, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom, addressed national Democratic leaders in L.A.


Jimmy Kimmel tears into Time's AI-focused Person of the Year cover featuring Musk, Altman and other tech CEOs

FOX News

On Thursday, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel criticized Time magazine's 2025 Person of the Year cover featuring AI tech CEOs, calling them "the eight dorks of the apocalypse."


AMD CEO Lisa Su Isn't Afraid of the Competition

WIRED

In this episode of we take you through our recent conversation with Lisa Su and go behind the scenes of our Big Interview event. Last week, some of the most forward-thinking minds in tech, culture, and politics came together for WIRED's Big Interview event--a series of live, in-depth conversations with industry leaders. To kick off the event, Lauren Goode sat down with AMD's CEO Lisa Su. In this episode of, hosts Michael Calore and Lauren discuss the key ideas that came up during the interview, as well as the other conversations that caught everyone's attention during the event. Can AI Look at Your Retina and Diagnose Alzheimer's? San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie: 'We Are a City on the Rise' Write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com . You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how: If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link . Mike, I've been pondering the word tape. Because we say we're taping a podcast. I don't think the kids know what that means. I mean, they may know what it means in the abstract, but I don't think they've had the visceral experience of actually recording something onto tape. Be kind, rewind, all of that. No, so I guess we're supposed to say we're recording a podcast now. It's like when people say, let me film that. So then if you have a video podcast, are you shooting the podcast? Do you say taping, then? It covers all the bases. Well, should we record this pod? I would like to, yes. My throat is still feeling a little bit raw, even though it's been like four or five days. You sound delightful to me. I was first up in the morning. Katie, our boss, gave the intro to the conference and then it was me and Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD.