Jeff Bezos says that artificial intelligence will lead to labor shortages, not replace humans, predicted Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, at a technology conference in Paris. According to Bezos, the technology will help humanity, for example, in projects like his Blue Origin space venture and his new AI startup Prometheus, which aims to accelerate manufacturing, reported Reuters.
"I know that many people, including many smart people, are concerned that artificial intelligence will make humans redundant, but I disagree with that view. In fact, artificial intelligence will create labor shortages."
Meanwhile, global companies have eliminated and are eliminating thousands of jobs after investing significant sums in artificial intelligence, with many, primarily technology companies, citing greater efficiency from the rapid spread of the technology.
- U.S. employers announced 97,006 job cuts in May, with AI responsible for 40% of the layoffs, according to a report from Challenger, Gray and Christmas, a global outplacement firm.
- According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted this month, half of Americans fear that they or someone in their household could lose their job due to the rise of artificial intelligence.
- From the entry of Generation Z into the labor market to South Korean auto workers' unions to Hollywood screenwriters, there is widespread resistance to the use of artificial intelligence.
Bezos, the world's fourth-richest person with a net worth of about $250 billion, argued that people have "countless" other things to do and are currently limited by obstacles that he believes AI would reduce.
Amazon has also eliminated about 30,000 corporate roles since the end of last year, partly due to efficiency gains from AI. Its CEO, Andy Jassy, previously stated that increased automation through AI tools would lead to job losses at companies.
Bezos is now focusing on space.
One goal of space exploration is to remove polluting industries from Earth, said Bezos, whose Blue Origin aims to compete with Elon Musk's trillion-dollar SpaceX. The decision is a win for unions who had filed a lawsuit to completely halt the buyout plan.
"If spaceflight becomes reliable and cheap enough, and we can extract materials from asteroids, near-Earth objects, and the Moon, then this planet can be restored to its pre-industrial revolution state," Bezos said.
Bezos was joined by David Limp, CEO of Blue Origin, who said the reconstruction of the company's New Glenn rocket launch pad in Florida has begun following a dramatic explosion in May.
Musk also spoke about a lofty space vision before last week's SpaceX stock market listing, including plans for cities on the Moon and Mars.
