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Jeff Bezos hears those widespread fears about AI causing job loss\u2014and he thinks those doomers are looking at the future all wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know there\u2019s a lot of concern in general about AI and job loss,\u201d Bezos said in a recent CNBC interview<\/a>. \u201cI have a very different view. I think what\u2019s actually going to happen is we\u2019re going to have labor scarcity as a result. People are going to have to work hard.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know why people are pessimistic. They\u2019re pessimistic because a bunch of smart people are telling them to be pessimistic, but those people are wrong,\u201d Bezos added. \u201cWhen you have productivity\u2014and this could be very significant productivity in the economy\u2014that is going to raise the standard of living.\u201d<\/p>\n Bezos has been staunch in his belief that AI will result in the opposite of job loss, instead resulting in a shortage of human labor. In May, he said that AI pessimists were \u201cdead wrong,\u201d<\/a> adding that the tech would \u201celevate\u201d young workers and allow people to get work done at \u201ca higher level.\u201d <\/p>\n With the productivity gains and expanded economy that will result from AI innovation, Bezos believes there will be more demand for human work than there currently is supply.<\/p>\n AI startup Prometheus cofounder and co-CEO Vik Bajaj agreed with Bezos\u2019 sentiment during the interview.<\/p>\n \u201cCompanies occasionally create jobs, but what really creates jobs is invention,\u201d Bajaj said. \u201cInventions are based on dreams, but invention means that you actually make the dream a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n Bezos\u2019 and Bajaj\u2019s Prometheus officially launched in November with $6.2 billion in funding. TechCrunch recently reported<\/a> that the company raised an additional $12 billion at a $41 billion valuation in a funding round led by Bezos, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, DST Global and Arch Venture Partners. The company is building AI tools that speed up engineering work, or what it calls an \u201cartificial general engineer.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe will have more engineers; we will have more jobs in engineering and manufacturing as a result of inventing more,\u201d Bajaj added.<\/p>\n Bezos\u2019 theory might be difficult to convince others of, especially considering Amazon\u2014where he is the largest individual shareholder and executive chairman\u2014has cut thousands of roles as it embraces AI and aims to reduce middle management layers. In October, the company laid off 14,000 corporate workers and later cut another 16,000 roles in January under CEO Andy Jassy.<\/p>\n CEOs seem to be split on their stances on AI job loss. OpenAI\u2019s Sam Altman previously warned that AI would make jobs disappear, but he recently said he was wrong about his timeline and prediction. Last year, Anthropic\u2019s Dario Amodei said that AI could wipe out 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs. Others, like Nvidia\u2019s Jensen Huang, have brushed aside AI as a \u201clazy\u201d excuse for layoffs. <\/p>\n Amid these conflicting views, a new Reuters\/Ipsos survey<\/a> found that 53% of its 4,531 respondents were worried that they or someone in their household would lose a job due to AI. The only thing that everyone seems to agree on is that AI is, in fact, changing work. <\/p>\n Whether it\u2019s changing for the best is still up for debate.<\/p>\n