Jeff Bezos says utopia is right around the corner; we should just keep pushing and, importantly, keep funding companies like the ones he runs. In a wide-ranging interview with CNBC, the founder of Amazon and Blue Origin didn\u2019t deny that artificial intelligence will be disruptive; he just happens to think that it\u2019ll be in a way that creates endless abundance. Easy for a guy who already has infinite wealth to say.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019ve been digging out a basement for your house with a shovel and somebody\u2019s about to hand you a bulldozer, you should be so happy,\u201d Bezos told CNBC<\/a> anchor and New York Times columnist Aaron Ross Sorkin. \u201cWhat\u2019s really going to happen is we are going to have so much productivity in our economy,\u201d he said, insisting that rather than replacing human workers, AI will \u201celevate all of these people.\u201d<\/p>\n Just how much will it elevate them? So much so that there\u2019s going to be job shortages and deflation\u2014not because the economy is going to tank now that we\u2019ve so thoroughly hitched our wagons to a technology that has yet to produce much meaningful productivity improvements, but because people will just willingly quit their jobs and enjoy their labor-free life.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people who have two-earner income households, one of those people are going to drop out of the workforce,\u201d Bezos said. \u201cI predict we will actually have deflation, assuming we let this technology play out and don\u2019t hamstring it with regulation too early. Everything, food will get cheaper, housing construction will get cheaper.\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe Bezos and company are just helping people transition into that reality by laying off tens of thousands of people<\/a> while talking up how AI can do their jobs instead. That\u2019s not exactly handing those workers a bulldozer, more like running them over with one that, it turns out, isn\u2019t actually that great at digging dirt<\/a>. Also, if you wanted to use Amazon as an indicator of consumer prices, you\u2019d find that things also aren\u2019t getting cheaper\u2014prices just keep going up<\/a>. So things are getting more expensive, and people are getting displaced by largely untested and ineffective technology, but if we just keep doing that, it\u2019ll all work itself out.<\/p>\n That also seems to be Bezos\u2019 attitude toward the current massive amount of money pouring into the AI industry: it\u2019s good, actually, and even if it\u2019s bad, that is also good! \u201cEven if it does turn out to be a bubble, you shouldn\u2019t worry about it because the bubble is driving investment and a lot of the investment is going to turn out to be very healthy,\u201d he said. Famously, bubbles just work themselves out without any ripple effects<\/a>. Anyway, please make sure the industry keeps the money flowing to things like Project Prometheus, Bezos\u2019 AI robotics startup that just raised $10 billion<\/a> despite not even being six months old.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard not to read Bezos\u2019 techno-optimism as self-serving in a number of ways. There\u2019s the direct effect: he\u2019s raising money for his own AI venture. But there\u2019s some additional sleight of hand happening here. Bezos says that unregulated AI will lead to so much productivity and cheaper goods that people will be able to drop out of the workforce and live comfortably\u2014but that can only be achieved by the free market, you see. Taxing billionaires more won\u2019t help anyone.<\/p>\n \u201cIf people want me to pay more billions right, then let\u2019s have that debate, but don\u2019t pretend that that\u2019s going to solve the problem,\u201d Bezos told CNBC. \u201cYou could double the taxes I pay, and it\u2019s not going to help that teacher in Queens, I promise you.\u201d<\/p>\n