Innovate Faster: AWS Launches New Accelerator to Boost Generative AI Startups

Generative AI could revolutionize industries ranging from film and healthcare to tech and manufacturing. The AWS Generative AI Accelerator seeks to be a game changer for entrepreneurs already developing minimal viable products in this space, offering valuable resources like production assistance, customized mentoring, networking opportunities, and connections with potential investors. Deadline to apply is April 17.

AWS is accepting applications for a new 10-week program designed to take some of the most promising generative AI startups around the world to the next level.

Called AWS Generative AI Accelerator, the program builds on the new developments around generative AI, the company said.

“Generative AI is an incredibly exciting field that has the potential to revolutionize many industries. Tech startups will play an important role in bringing this technology into the mainstream,” Howard Wright, the VP and Global Head of AWS Startup, said in a blog.

Lowering barriers for filmmakers

Wright said that generative AI has multiple uses to enhance everything from the film industry to healthcare.

“The visual effects that make heart-pumping action scenes, amazing super heroes, and enthralling new worlds take months of tedious work by hundreds of artists to come to fruition—adding up numerous hours in post-production time and using millions of dollars in production budget,” he said.

The massive cost of computer-generated effects limits filmmakers with modest resources who struggle to implement high-quality visual effects.

He cited Runway, one of AWS’ startup customers, as helping artists revolutionize filmmaking with its AI Magic Tools—some of which were used in the Best Picture Oscar-winning film “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.”

Runway’s text-guided generative diffusion models are unlocking powerful new multimodal creation and editing solutions for artists, Wright said. With Runway, the tasks of composition, stylization, inpainting, motion tracking, and other processes are made easier and quicker for creators and allows them to focus on more idea concepts and deliver faster iterations.

These tools also cut down production costs and lower the barrier for filmmakers—professionals and amateurs alike—to push the boundaries of movie making and let their imagination run free.

‘Tailored to meet the needs of generative AI startups’

In healthcare, Wright said that generative AI can be used to create personalized treatment plans or to better analyze medical images. In finance, generative AI can generate smarter analysis and draw insights. In tech, it can write code and reduce human-error bugs, he said.

In manufacturing, generative AI design new products and optimize production processes, Wright said.

He said the AWS Generative AI Accelerator is designed to act as catalyst by helping some of the most promising companies take their ideas off the ground.

“With a program tailored to meet the needs of generative AI startups, the AWS Generative AI Accelerator will provide access to impactful AI models and tools, customized go-to-market strategies, machine learning stack optimization, and more,” Wright said. “Selected startups will also have access to networking opportunities with industry luminaries, potential investors, and customers.”

Wright said that the selected startups will receive up to $300,000 in AWS credits to build their products and services on AWS’ tech stack, as well as dedicated business and technical mentors matched based on industry vertical, market, and stage.

Seeking startups with developed MVPs

Startups should have a minimal viable product (MVP) already developed, have some traction with customers, and be working to enhance their product value proposition in order to scale, Wright added.

The program is open to all startups, but those already building on AWS will receive the most benefit from the accelerator’s dedicated AWS Solutions Architect team, Wright said. That team will support every step of their product development.

The program is open to companies around the world, with no limitations around use case.

“We want to empower companies applying generative AI to solutions from legal and marketing, to software engineering, green energy, and life sciences, including drug discovery,” Wright said.

Applications for the AWS Generative AI Accelerator will be open through April 17.

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