diff --git a/charts/karpenter-crd/templates/karpenter.k8s.aws_ec2nodeclasses.yaml b/charts/karpenter-crd/templates/karpenter.k8s.aws_ec2nodeclasses.yaml
index 5b1b6f8eadce..e898acee9a62 100644
--- a/charts/karpenter-crd/templates/karpenter.k8s.aws_ec2nodeclasses.yaml
+++ b/charts/karpenter-crd/templates/karpenter.k8s.aws_ec2nodeclasses.yaml
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
 kind: CustomResourceDefinition
 metadata:
   annotations:
-    controller-gen.kubebuilder.io/version: v0.16.4
+    controller-gen.kubebuilder.io/version: v0.16.5
   name: ec2nodeclasses.karpenter.k8s.aws
 spec:
   group: karpenter.k8s.aws
diff --git a/pkg/apis/crds/karpenter.k8s.aws_ec2nodeclasses.yaml b/pkg/apis/crds/karpenter.k8s.aws_ec2nodeclasses.yaml
index c942189eb616..48cfade76afd 100644
--- a/pkg/apis/crds/karpenter.k8s.aws_ec2nodeclasses.yaml
+++ b/pkg/apis/crds/karpenter.k8s.aws_ec2nodeclasses.yaml
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
 kind: CustomResourceDefinition
 metadata:
   annotations:
-    controller-gen.kubebuilder.io/version: v0.16.4
+    controller-gen.kubebuilder.io/version: v0.16.5
   name: ec2nodeclasses.karpenter.k8s.aws
 spec:
   group: karpenter.k8s.aws
diff --git a/pkg/providers/amifamily/ami.go b/pkg/providers/amifamily/ami.go
index 871559d71e07..2d41eb8e2838 100644
--- a/pkg/providers/amifamily/ami.go
+++ b/pkg/providers/amifamily/ami.go
@@ -72,7 +72,10 @@ func (p *DefaultProvider) List(ctx context.Context, nodeClass *v1.EC2NodeClass)
 	// Discover deprecated AMIs if automatic AMI discovery and upgrade is enabled. This ensures we'll be able to
 	// provision in the event of an EKS optimized AMI being deprecated.
 	includeDeprecated := lo.ContainsBy(nodeClass.Spec.AMISelectorTerms, func(term v1.AMISelectorTerm) bool {
-		return term.Alias == "latest"
+		if term.Alias == "" {
+			return false
+		}
+		return v1.AMIVersionFromAlias(term.Alias) == "latest"
 	})
 	amis, err := p.amis(ctx, queries, includeDeprecated)
 	if err != nil {