Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos predicted that artificial intelligence would create labor shortages, defying predictions that the technology could lead to mass unemployment.“I know there’s a lot of concern that many people have, including many smart people, that AI is going to make humans redundant and so on,” Bezos said Wednesday at an appearance at the VivaTech conference in Paris. “I totally disagree with this point of view. And I think, in fact, AI is going to create a labor shortage.”Bezos has argued AI will lead to a shortage of labor by “elevating” productivity, allowing people in two-earner households to drop out of the workforce while still affording daily expenses.
The argument is at odds with warnings about the advent of AI from many economists and from those in the industry itself. Amazon itself has trimmed around 30,000 corporate roles, about 10% of its white-collar workforce, partly due to AI.
In his comments on Wednesday, Bezos touted his other projects, such as space venture Blue Origin and new AI startup Prometheus, which aims to speed up physical manufacturing.
The impact of AI on jobs is not yet clear, but some tech companies have announced layoffs that analysts say may be related. Networking and information technology company Cisco, for example, recently announced it is reducing its global workforce by around 4,000 jobs, representing less than 5% of its total employee base. The company took this approach to shift resources into high-growth areas, specifically AI infrastructure.
