Amazon founder Jeff Bezos defended his vision for artificial intelligence during an extended Fox News interview on Wednesday.
The discussion ranged from the future of American families and criticism aimed at billionaires to Bezos’ long-term proposal to turn Blue Origin satellites into orbital data centers.
“Yes, we can put data centers in space. And there’s a good reason to do that,” Bezos told Bret Baier during the roughly 20-minute interview on Special Report.
Bezos also said he has personally invested $28 billion in Blue Origin over the years and indicated that the space company could eventually pursue an initial public offering.
At one point, Baier asked Bezos whether the United States would reach the moon before China.
“We have to beat China to the moon, and I believe we will beat China to the moon. It’s a very important thing to do. NASA is very focused on it,” the 62-year-old Bezos responded.
Bezos became visibly animated when Baier introduced the subject of artificial intelligence, interrupting the anchor as he began outlining the technology’s economic potential.
“It’s going to drive huge productivity in the economy, by the way, huge productivity,” Bezos said.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos joined Fox News this week to discuss Blue Origin, artificial intelligence and his vision for America’s future
Veteran anchor Bret Baier interviewed Bezos on the floor of a Blue Origin factory
Baier asked him to be more precise, pressing for a figure that could illustrate the expected economic gains.
“I don’t know what number to put on it, but, I mean, we could see double-digit productivity gains in the economy,” Bezos said.
“Double digits?” Baier replied, appearing surprised.
“Yes, it’s very, very, very possible,” Bezos answered with a smile. He said AI advances could give people more freedom and opportunity to pursue creative work.
“That’s what these AI tools are going to allow,” he said. Baier then asked about Donald Trump’s preferred rebranding of AI as “super intelligence,” or SI.
“By the way, the President says SI. Are you into SI or AI?” Baier asked.
After briefly stumbling over his response, Bezos said he “like[d] SI.”
“Because artificial is not a very flattering thing. Like, nobody wants an artificial sweetener or artificial flavoring.”
Throughout the interview, Bezos repeatedly highlighted the potential benefits of rapidly advancing AI technology
Baier followed by asking whether the alternative terminology might sound “a little scary.” In a Thursday post on Truth Social, Trump described people who continue using the more common term as “THE ENEMY!”
‘Artificial sort of means – artificial sort of means fake,’ Bezos stammered.
He admitted it would be ‘a big road to change everybody getting to say superintelligence only because they’re so used to AI at this point.’
The President signed an executive order last month urging federal agencies to adopt the change when mentioning the technology in future communications.
‘It may be a long road, but I do understand the desire to get away from the word artificial,’ Bezos noted.
Turning to the actual tech, the Washington Post owner predicted AI would allow families to live on one income while also ushering in a labor shortage.
He maintained increased levels of ‘productivity in the economy’ would allow ‘many people’ to decide to ditch the increasingly typical two-earner household setup for just one.
‘Some people will also decide, you know what? I can support my family by working three days a week,’ he added. ‘That’s what productivity in the economy means.’
‘It’s going to actually be difficult to hire people because the productivity in the economy is going to make it so that if people don’t want to work two jobs, they won’t have to.’
‘You hear the fear out there, though,’ Baier lightly pressed.
‘Oh, yes,’ Bezos answered, adding that he ‘understand[s] it.’
‘Because a lot of smart people are prognosticating that,’ he continued. ‘I just happen to disagree with those smart people.’
A clip of Trump touting the agreement reached between six major AI companies to adopt safety policies that include audits and third-party evaluations and risk reviews at the White House last month followed.
Baier asked Bezos what he thought about AI regulation.
‘You don’t want to regulate knives. You want to regulate murder,’ Bezos said. He added that ‘a light hand’ would be ‘appropriate’ early on.
The conversation then steered toward politics. Bezos recently batted back claims that Amazon’s Melania Trump documentary was an attempt to curry favor with the President.
Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos at the US Open in Queens last month
Baier, 56, asked about Bernie Sanders. He prefaced the question by pointing out how Bezos complained to CNBC’s Squawk Box in May about politicians using the ‘age-old technique of picking a villain and pointing fingers’ rather than seeking solutions.
‘Bernie Sanders is always out on the trail. And Senator Sanders talks about billionaires a lot. How do you see that?’
‘Well, I think we live in an environment where some people have come to – they have been taught, I think incorrectly, but they have been taught that – into this whole kind of oppressor-oppressed framework, and that success is villainy,’ Bezos replied.
He argued that ‘success is not villainy.’
‘You can be a billionaire if you start a hamburger stand.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with making unbelievably good chicken that people love,’ he added, citing the success of chicken finger chain Raising Cane’s. ‘And it doesn’t make him a bad person.’
Bezos has an estimated net worth of roughly $370 billion, according to Forbes – behind only Elon Musk.
Last year, Bezos revamped the Opinion section of the Washington Post, to focus on ‘personal liberties and free markets.’
Bezos also pulled a last-minute Post endorsement of then-candidate Kamala Harris at the eleventh hour, causing anger from both staff and readers.