- Jeff Bezos says AI fatalists are ‘completely wrong’
- Amazon founder says using AI will lead to greater productivity
- Bezos praises Trump, but says ‘I’m on America’s side’
Jeff Bezos has criticized opponents of the increasing use of AI in the workplace, saying the technology could actually help workers around the world and unlock additional productivity for everyone.
talking to CNBCAlan Sorkin, the Amazon founder turned aspiring socialite, sought to downplay growing fears that artificial intelligence technology will destroy the job market, particularly for younger workers.
“I think those people are completely wrong,” Bezos said. “What’s really going to happen is (AI) will elevate all these people.”
“Higher level” job
Bezos, whose former company is one of the world’s biggest adopters of AI, predicted that the technology will help increase productivity and could even lead to deflation as the cost of goods and services falls, but he clarified that this could only happen if “we let this technology develop and don’t cripple it with regulations too soon.”
He also rejected the idea that AI coding tools could be a threat to software engineers, stating that the technology could actually help them be more productive by detecting problems and solving them.
“It’s just that the work will be done at a higher level,” Bezos said. “It will be done with a bulldozer instead of a shovel, and that will be a good thing.”
In a wide-ranging interview at the headquarters of his Blue Origin spacecraft, Bezos also addressed tax issues, President Trump and economic policies across the United States.
“The richest 1% of taxpayers pay about 40% of all tax revenue, and the bottom half pay 3%,” Bezos said. “I don’t think it should be 3%. I think it should be zero.”
Despite leaving Amazon in 2021, Bezos still receives a good salary from the company: in April 2026, he noted that he received a salary of $81,400, a figure that has not changed since 1998, although he also received $1.6 million in security and travel expenses. Bezos, of course, also owns about 8% of Amazon, and his shares are estimated to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
“People sometimes say I don’t pay taxes. It’s not true. I pay billions of dollars in taxes,” Bezos said. CNBCresponding to critics who say he doesn’t do everything possible and also stating that making him pay more wouldn’t solve anything.
“You could double the taxes I pay, and that won’t help that teacher in Queens. I promise you that.”
Bezos also told Sorkin that he believes President Donald Trump is “a more mature and disciplined version of himself than he was in his first term,” but noted that he had also spoken with his predecessors Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
“We need our business leaders to provide information to the administration, regardless of who is president,” he said.
“I am on the side of the United States,” he added. “And that’s where business leaders should be.”
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