Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos vigorously championed artificial intelligence in a Wednesday interview while also defending the vast fortunes of himself and other billionaires.
"There are sort of two different economies," Bezos said when asked at the start of the interview about the growing criticism of billionaires. "There are a lot of people in this country who are doing very well, and there are a lot of people who are struggling."
He quickly put forward a proposal: eliminate income taxes for the bottom half of earners in the United States.
"A nurse in Queens making $75,000 a year pays over $12,000 in taxes," Bezos said. "Is that really the right thing?"
After acknowledging the economic hardships faced by Americans, the world's fourth-richest person accused politicians of using an "old playbook" — "pick a scapegoat, blame each other."
"The problem is, that doesn't solve anything," Bezos stated. He then criticized New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani over a recent controversial video in which the mayor publicly chastised billionaire Ken Griffin, CEO of Citadel Investment Group, while announcing a new "second-home tax."
"The mayor standing outside Ken Griffin's house, treating him like some villain, is not right," Bezos said. "Ken Griffin's not a villain. He hasn't hurt anybody. He hasn't hurt New York. In fact, the opposite is true."
When asked if his proposal to lower taxes for low-income Americans should be paired with higher rates for the wealthy, Bezos said it was a question worth discussing but condemned the accompanying "demonization" of billionaires.
He argued that the root of America's fiscal problems is excessive spending, not insufficient revenue.
He countered numerous critics, such as Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who have accused him of paying too little in taxes.
"People sometimes say I don't pay taxes. That's not true. I've paid billions of dollars in taxes," he said.
Bezos insisted that simply making him pay more would not solve the problem: "Doubling my taxes is not going to help that teacher in Queens. I promise you."
Bezos flatly denied the widely circulated accusation that wealthy individuals use a strategy known as "buy, borrow, die" — leveraging massive asset holdings to minimize tax liabilities.
"The 'buy, borrow, die' thing is not a thing. I don't even know where that comes from," he said. "I've been selling Amazon.com stock regularly."
When the interviewer noted that the world's richest person, Elon Musk, has taken out massive loans using stock as collateral, Bezos said, "I'm a little skeptical that it's actually a loophole, but if it is, can we fix it? If we can, we should fix it."
However, he stressed that even fixing this would be of little help. "That nurse in Queens... it doesn't help her at all," he said.
Bezos also dismissed concerns that AI would lead to job losses, arguing that the technology would enhance workers' capabilities and boost the economy.
"I think those people are just very, very wrong," he said of AI opponents. "What AI is actually going to deliver is, it's going to raise the standard of living for everybody."
He predicted that the emerging technology would increase productivity, leading to falling prices for a range of goods and services, provided "we let this technology develop unencumbered, don't try to regulate it too early."
Bezos added that AI coding tools do not pose a threat to software engineers. He said these tools would help programmers identify and solve problems in their work.
"Except, the work is going to be at a higher level," he said. "It's going to be done with bulldozers instead of shovels, and that's a good thing."
During the interview, Bezos also stated that he believes former President Donald Trump is "more mature, more disciplined than he was his first term."
"Donald Trump has a lot of good ideas, and he did a lot of things — he got a lot of things right. Where credit is due, credit is due," Bezos said.
He also refuted allegations that Amazon.com's expensive production of a documentary about former First Lady Melania Trump was an attempt to curry favor with the president. "The rumors about Melania are total lies," he said.
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