Jeff Bezos says AI could power a return to single-earner households as it turbocharges productivity

• Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says the productivity gains from AI could lead to a labor shortage.
• Extra productivity may mean families only need one working parent, he said in a Fox News interview.
• This will take people out of the workforce and make hiring more difficult, Bezos added.

Jeff Bezos says many families will return to having just one working parent as AI drives increased productivity.

Speaking to Fox News in an interview on Wednesday evening, the Amazon founder said the workplace efficiency gains he believes AI will trigger could lead to a labor shortage.

If AI increases economic productivity as he expects it to, "you're not going to need to have a two-earner income household," Bezos told Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier.

"If you want to have it, it's fine. You'll have it. But if you don't want to have it, one of the people might drop out," he added.

Bezos went on to say that increased productivity from AI could also mean people can make enough money to choose to work three days a week instead of the traditional five.

"Some people will also decide, you know what, I can support my family working three days a week. That's what productivity in the economy means," he said.

This option will, in turn, make it more challenging for companies to hire as more people choose not to work, Bezos said.

"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."

Bezos, the world's third-richest person, is the latest billionaire AI-backer to espouse what he sees as a future in which the technology supercharges productivity and gives workers more control over their lives.

Bezos joins Musk in touting an 'age of abundance'

Elon Musk, the world's richest man, has long touted the potential for an AI-powered future in which people have more money and time and work less.

"I think by far the most likely outcome is an age of abundance where we don't have just universal basic income, we have universal high income," the Tesla and SpaceXAI CEO said at a meeting of tech leaders at the White House last week.

As AI has risen in prominence in recent years, many have warned that the technology could lead to mass unemployment as white-collar jobs become more automated.

So far, these warnings have not materialized, with the US unemployment rate rising slightly since 2022 but remaining relatively steady between 4.1% and 4.5% over the past two years.

An analysis by Yale Budget Lab in June this year found that AI's impact on America's job market since it went mainstream in late 2022 has been modest. Rather than eliminating jobs, it has tended to change them, researchers found.

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