Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at the VivaTech conference in Paris pushed back against fears that AI will replace workers, arguing it will unlock new opportunities and increase demand for human labor. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing BBC News.
Bezos disagreed with growing concerns that AI will make people redundant. Instead, he argued that the tech will create new opportunities and increase demand for human labor. This contradicts views of some tech and political figures, including former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who recently said AI is impacting young people's job prospects.
"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. I totally disagree with this point of view. And I think, in fact, AI is going to create a labor shortage," Bezos said.
He painted an optimistic picture of AI's future role, suggesting that people are limited not by a lack of ambition, but by barriers that technology can help remove.
The billionaire entrepreneur spoke about his new AI venture Prometheus, focused on accelerating physical manufacturing, a sector becoming increasingly automated.
The UK's Trades Union Congress has warned that AI could repeat "the disaster of deindustrialisation," but added that if developed properly, AI could boost productivity and benefit workers.
Bezos also outlined his long-term vision for space exploration. He described space as "supply constrained, not demand constrained," calling the Moon a natural starting point for humanity's expansion beyond Earth.
"We're going to the Moon to stay, not just to visit," Bezos said, adding that technologies like electrolysis could allow lunar resources to refuel rockets and support a permanent presence.
His space company Blue Origin recently suffered a setback when an uncrewed New Glenn rocket exploded during a ground test at Cape Canaveral, Florida in May. "It was a gut punch for the whole team. But what we've learned since then is we got really lucky," Bezos said. No injuries were reported, and several critical pieces of launch infrastructure survived.
Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said reconstruction is underway and launches are expected to resume before the end of the year. Blue Origin competes with Elon Musk's SpaceX in commercial spaceflight and lunar exploration.
At VivaTech, Unitree's humanoid robot drew large crowds. The robot teamed up with French neuro-AI company HABS, showcasing technology that allows humans to interact with machines using cognitive signals rather than speech. The robot responded to commands generated through brain activity via a headband with an electroencephalogram (EEG).
The demo offered a glimpse of how humans and machines could work together in the future, reflecting a trend of AI moving beyond chatbots into the physical world. Humanoid robots are becoming a reality, with companies racing to develop machines capable of working alongside humans in healthcare, manufacturing, and hospitality.