Amazon may not be known for making generative AI, but it's eager to help others get their technology up and running. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is launching a generative AI accelerator that will help the "most promising" startups flourish. The 10-week program provides credits for AWS use, access to mentors and other experts and networking events. At the end, startups pitch their work to potential investors and customers. While the accelerator is open to all generative AI startups, AWS recommends that candidates have at least a basic product ready with some interest from customers. Sign-ups are available worldwide through April 17th, and Amazon makes clear that there are no limits on how the AI is being used -- it can be used for everything from the legal world through to discovering new medicines.

Amazon is investing $1 billion into the industrial sector to "spur supply chain, fulfillment, and logistics innovation and further improve the customer and employee experience". The $1 billion venture investment program is called the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund (AIIF). As customers increasingly shop online and look for even faster delivery, Amazon says it is continuing to invent new ways to raise the bar on customer and employee experience while working with other companies focused on those fields. Amazon has invested and innovated substantially over the last two decades in next-generation technology in its operations. This new fund is one of the ways Amazon continues to invest, along with many other initiatives, such as the MARS and re:MARS conferences that Amazon hosts every year.

Tech giant Amazon unveiled several new products on Tuesday, including a $1,500 autonomous robot that can monitor a person's home for intruders. Undoubtedly the cutest product making an appearance on Tuesday was its Alexa-powered robot, called Astro – although it's available to purchase by invite for people in the U.S., meaning interested customers have to sign up to have a chance to buy. The $1,450 robot uses intelligent motion to check-in on your home while you're away and give alerts about any disturbances. It can move autonomously around your home, navigate to check in on specific areas, show a live view of rooms through the Astro app, or send alerts if it detects an unrecognized person. Astro uses its digital eyes on its rotating screen, body movements, and expressive tones to communicate, according to Amazon.

If there's one thing Amazon deserves praise for, it's the willingness to experiment with how Alexa can be used as a storytelling tool. One such experiment from late last year has paved the way for a new series of voice-only roleplaying adventures set within the Starfinder universe. Today, Amazon is launching the first season of full Starfinder RPG episodes, set within the universe of the famous tabletop RPG. It follows a pilot episode, "Scoundrels in the Spike," which hit Alexa last December, which was successful enough to justify the making of a fully-cast, six-episode first season. The show is a co-production between game makers Paizo and Audible, starring Laura Bailey and Nathan Fillion.

Last year's Cyber Monday was the biggest single shopping day in Amazon's 25 year history, but the company's success has led to problems for the country's recycling industry. The number of annual deliveries through the US Postal Service, Amazon's default delivery method, has doubled over the last decade, going from 3.1 billion in 2009 to 6.2 billion in 2018. The extraordinary growth of cardboard waste from shipping materials has been dubbed'the Amazon effect' at many waste removal and recycling companies. Waste management and recylcing firms have begun to call the enormous growth in packaging materials that end up in the trash as'the Amazon effect' According to a report in The Verge, corrugated cardboard accounts for close to half of the curbside recycling material in New York today, compared to just fifteen percent in 2003. The enormous increase in residential packaging materials has come at the worst possible time, as in 2018 China, formerly the world's largest recycler, began refusing shipments of recyclable cardboard from the US in instances where it was contaminated by .5 percent or more of other material.

Amazon will take the next step in its bid to take over the food delivery market with its own company-branded grocery stores. In a report from CNET, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed the company's intention to open the first-ever Amazon-branded grocery store in Los Angeles. While the company hasn't released many details, a job listing discovered by CNET suggest the store will be'Amazon's first grocery store' meaning it will likely carry the e-tailing giant's brand name. Amazon is making its first foray into company-branded grocery stores. The outlets will reportedly offer cheaper options compared to the Amazon-owned Whole Foods.

Amazon is opening its doors wide to Prime customers in search of faster shipping in an effort to eat up more of the traditional retail market. According to a report from Recode, the e-commerce giant has removed restrictions on its products that forbade customers from utilizing one-day shipping on items less than $5. Prime customers will be now able to select one-day shipping on products that cost as little as $1, making routine trips to convenience stores that much less convenient. While Amazon has long-sold products like deodorant, dental floss, and other household items on its platform, the restriction on price meant its users were usually required to buy those items in a larger set or tack them onto orders with other items through the company's'add-on' program. Recode notes, however, that Amazon's'add-on' program has been slowly phased out in recent months, essentially paving the way for a new ere of single-use shopping. Now, with the restrictions lifted, customers will be able to not only buy those items individually, but have them delivered imminently to their doorstep.

The phrase'deal of a lifetime' tends to get thrown around a lot, but a few keen deal-seekers during Amazon's prime day may have actually found it. Due to a pricing glitch, Amazon shoppers have reported being able to buy high-end camera equipment that retails at as much as $13,000, for just $100 or less. One user, posting on Reddit under the name SoccerMomDeals, said they spent $500 on $65,000 worth of camera lenses. On the discount forum Slickdeals, waves of users reported news of their plunder, which included items like the Sony Alpha a6000 Mirrorless Digital Camera with a 16-50 mm lens, marked down from $550 to just $94. Camera gear markdowns had shoppers scrambling to order merchandise for Amazon caught on to what appears to be a pricing glitch.

Amazon is launching a new conference focused on robotics, space and artificial intelligence. The re:MARS conference, which stands for machine learning, automation, robotics and space, is slated to take place at the Aria Resort in Las Vegas on June 4th through the 7th. It will be open to the public and is set to include'visionary talks, interactive workshops, technical deep dives, roundtables, hands-on demos, and more,' an Amazon statement said. Amazon's re:MARS conference, which stands for machine learning, automation, robotics and space, is slated to take place in Las Vegas on June 4th through the 7th The conference grew out of a private, invite-only event, called Mars, hosted by Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos in recent years. 'We're at the beginning of a golden age of AI,' Bezos said in the statement.

The first book sold on Amazon was'Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought' by Douglas Hofstadter. Bezos chose the name Amazon in reference to the Amazon River, the biggest river in the world, as he hoped Amazon would be the biggest bookstore in the world. The first book sold on Amazon was titled'Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought' by Douglas Hofstadter. The firm opens up sales of music, movies, consumer electronics, video games, toys and more. The logo is meant to suggest that Amazon sells every kind of product from A to Z.