Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has doubled down on his belief that artificial intelligence will transform the economy by boosting productivity, improving living standards and eventually creating a shortage of labour rather than widespread unemployment.
Bezos, in a conversation with CNBC, said the economic gains from AI could even allow many households to rely on a single income instead of two.
Talking to the news channel after his AI startup Prometheus raised $12 billion in a Series B funding round at a valuation of about $41 billion, Bezos said concerns that AI will eliminate jobs are misplaced.
Prometheus, which launched in November with $6.2 billion in funding, is focussed on developing AI systems capable of handling complex physical tasks such as engineering, manufacturing and drug design.
Bezos, serves as co-CEO alongside Vik Bajaj, a Stanford University professor and former Verily co-founder. He is betting big on Prometheus, noting that the startup is taking the bulk of his time for now.
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Addressing fears around job losses, Bezos said AI-driven productivity gains would significantly raise living standards and increase the range of goods and services people can afford.
“A lot of people who for example today have two-earner households, perhaps one of those earners will choose not to be in the job market, so they'll become a one-earner household,” Bezos said.
“Maybe some people who are working overtime will stop working overtime, because they don't want to work overtime.”
He argued that AI would ultimately lead to labour scarcity rather than a shortage of jobs, while dismissing growing pessimism surrounding the technology.
“They're pessimistic because a bunch of smart people are telling them to be pessimistic, but those people are wrong,” Bezos said.
The billionaire also said Prometheus is not building robots, contrary to market speculation, and is instead developing what he described as an “artificial general engineer” designed to accelerate invention and engineering processes across industries.
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