Key Takeaways
- Jeff Bezos says that fears of AI-driven unemployment are overblown.
- He insists that the technology is more likely to create a labor shortage by making workers more productive.
- Bezos is co-leading a new startup called Prometheus, which aims to build an “artificial general engineer” that can design and manufacture complex physical products, like jet engines.
Companies are already laying off workers because of AI. One recent report from executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that AI accounted for more than a quarter of U.S. job cuts in April alone, with 21,490 positions lost due to the technology.
Against this backdrop, an optimistic voice has emerged. Jeff Bezos believes that AI will lead to a “labor shortage in the economy,” not widespread job losses, he recently told The Wall Street Journal. He made the comment while launching a new AI venture called Prometheus, which focuses on boosting engineers’ productivity.
Prometheus aims to build an “artificial general engineer” capable of designing and manufacturing complex products such as jet engines and spacecraft components. Bezos told the Journal that the goal is to give engineers tools that make invention easier and faster, so smaller teams can build bigger products in far less time.
Bezos is co-chief executive of the startup, which has a valuation of about $41 billion and has recently raised $12 billion from investors, including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, per the Journal. The firm has about 150 employees working in offices across San Francisco, London and Zurich.
What sets Prometheus apart
In an interview this week with The New York Times, Bezos said that “all societal wealth is driven by invention.” He pointed to the plow and the steam engine as examples of instances when “we all got wealthier.”
“What Prometheus seeks to do is to offer a set of tools that dramatically accelerates that invention loop,” he told the Times.
Bezos added that he was dedicating significant time to building the startup. He and his co-chief executive, former Google executive Vik Bajaj, are in talks to raise an additional $100 billion for an investment fund that Prometheus would control, according to the Times.
Bezos pushes back against the narrative that AI takes jobs
Bezos said in an interview with the Journal that much of the anxiety about AI among young people is “the opposite of reality.” He says they should feel encouraged, not defeated, because in his view, AI is more likely to act as a powerful tool than a job-destroying force.
Bezos said that if AI makes inventing things cheaper and easier, the technology will ultimately boost employment. He told the Journal that even if the number of workers needed for a given task shrinks by a factor of 10, AI will open up far more than 10 times as many new opportunities.
Adding to his comments, in an interview last month with CNBC, Bezos predicted that AI would elevate people on a broad scale. “We are going to have so much productivity in our economy,” he said.
He said AI allows the same person to accomplish far more with the right tools, which translates to higher living standards and cheaper goods.
“If you’ve been digging out a basement for your house with a shovel and somebody’s about to hand you a bulldozer, you should be so happy,” Bezos told CNBC.
Key Takeaways
- Jeff Bezos says that fears of AI-driven unemployment are overblown.
- He insists that the technology is more likely to create a labor shortage by making workers more productive.
- Bezos is co-leading a new startup called Prometheus, which aims to build an “artificial general engineer” that can design and manufacture complex physical products, like jet engines.
Companies are already laying off workers because of AI. One recent report from executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that AI accounted for more than a quarter of U.S. job cuts in April alone, with 21,490 positions lost due to the technology.
Against this backdrop, an optimistic voice has emerged. Jeff Bezos believes that AI will lead to a “labor shortage in the economy,” not widespread job losses, he recently told The Wall Street Journal. He made the comment while launching a new AI venture called Prometheus, which focuses on boosting engineers’ productivity.
Prometheus aims to build an “artificial general engineer” capable of designing and manufacturing complex products such as jet engines and spacecraft components. Bezos told the Journal that the goal is to give engineers tools that make invention easier and faster, so smaller teams can build bigger products in far less time.
