Jeff Bezos Michael S. Williamson | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Deep inside Amazon, a secretive group called Grand Challenge, led by the creator of Google Glass, is working on a series of bold projects involving cancer research, medical records and last-mile delivery, according to people familiar with the matter. Similar to Alphabet's experimental research lab, X (formerly Google X), Grand Challenge is a research team set up to explore ambitious new ventures that can eventually expand Amazon's already wide footprint, said the people, who asked not to be named because the work is confidential. The group, which also operates under the monikers 1492 and Amazon X, has added over 50 people since 2014, when Babak Parviz left Google X to head up the effort. The makeup of Parviz's team illustrates how far out Amazon is going to pursue innovative projects, beyond its primary businesses of e-commerce, consumer devices and Amazon Web Services, while still using resources from those divisions for some of its initiatives. Organizationally, Grand Challenge is part of AWS and Parviz reports directly to AWS CEO Andy Jassy, according to an internal chart. (After the publication of this story, an Amazon spokesperson said that Parviz's team is "not part of AWS and is a totally separate group." The chart identifies Parviz as "vice president, Grand Challenge," and says that he reports to Jassy.) One person with knowledge of Grand Challenge said the group gets to take a longer time horizon than teams that focus on commercial products. An internal job listing for Grand Challenge quotes astronomer Carl Sagan in the post: "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."

Cancer research to last-mile delivery

Medicine and health is a clear focus area for Grand Challenge, and one particular project is on cancer research. Parviz and his team are working with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, attempting to apply machine learning in ways that can help prevent and cure cancers, said a person with knowledge of the venture. A representative from Fred Hutch told CNBC in an email that the medical center has "several projects underway with a few of our tech neighbors," including Microsoft, Amazon and Tableau Software. "Given the early stages, we don't have any specific Amazon Web Services projects to preview but hopefully later this year," the spokesperson said. Grand Challenge is also working with AWS on a project, internally dubbed Hera, which involves taking unstructured data from electronic medical records to identify an incorrect code or the misdiagnosis of a patient. The technology captures patient data that a physician may miss, and can help remove the inaccuracies for insurers as they assess a population's risk. Grand Challenge is starting to pitch Hera, which has been in development for at least three years, to commercial health insurance companies, according to two people familiar with the effort.

Parviz's LinkedIn page identifies him as an Amazon vice president and doesn't say anything about his role. At a rare public appearance earlier this year, hosted by health marketing firm Klick Health, Parviz referred vaguely to some work he's doing around elder care. "Something...we've been building for some period of time and we deeply care about... relates to what happens to older people," said Parviz, who has a PhD in electrical engineering and teaches at the University of Washington, a source for some of Grand Challenge's top talent. It's a topic that has interested Parviz, an Iranian immigrant, for some time. In 2014, the year Parviz joined Amazon, he and a group of employees went on a cross-country bus tour to learn and get inspired about technologies that might be useful to aging Americans. But Grand Challenge's work isn't limited to health care. According to internal documents viewed by CNBC, the team is strategically involved with Amazon's last-mile delivery efforts. Those projects are aimed at improving Amazon's package delivery process by exploring new ways to reach consumers. Recent examples include the launch of a service that allows packages to be dropped inside the house and another in the trunk of a car.

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