The future looks bright, at least according to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Fortune reported on Bezos' speech at Italian Tech Week 2025, where he shared his vision of the future — a vision that also includes living in space and a lack of commuting.
One of Bezos' predictions is that robots will commute to work for us by 2045. More important than that, however, is his prediction that within the next ten to two years, millions of people will enjoy life in space.
Bezos also shared his disbelief with those who predict the demise of civilization due to AI and technological advancements. However, AI is already responsible for people losing their jobs, and the data centers needed to power the technology consume a huge amount of natural resources. When we consider these factors, it is easy to see how humans can predict doom and gloom with the continued use of AI.
The potential benefits are also obvious, in that a machine can synthesize vast amounts of data and draw conclusions or recommendations in minutes – in some cases even helping to solve pollution and energy problems, even though we have yet to see such a solution that offsets the power consumption associated with the many millions of more trivial AI applications every day.
The Amazon founder isn't the only billionaire looking forward to a future in space, either. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, predicts that in just a decade, university graduates will be working off-planet on exciting (and extremely well-paid) projects, while Elon Musk remains convinced that humans will be living on Mars as early as 2028.
However, not all the super-rich believe in space travel. Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, told James Corden that he believes humanity should prioritize fixing our current planet over planning adventures in space.
“Space? We have a lot to do here on Earth,” he said.
According to Fortune, Gates is unsure about how far we should push the technology.
While Gates said in an interview with Jimmy Fallon that AI and machines could usher in a new era where humans only have to work a few days a week while machines do the rest, he also once explained that if he ever encountered a time traveler, he would question them about the future of humanity under AI.
According to Gates, it's also unclear how the tech companies and moguls responsible for these AI innovations plan to make these productivity increases benefit individual members of society who don't work for their companies, allowing them to work less without taking a pay cut, as Gates alluded to.
Pete Buttigieg is one of the few politicians who has spoken out about the need for government involvement to ensure that AI leads to a more utopian society rather than a more dystopian society. He says there should be “AI dividends” that would spread the wealth of “the value created by AI.”
“I think it gives everyone a share in the total value created by technologies, which again rely on technologies that taxpayers paid for in the 1960s in the first place,” said Buttigieg, the former U.S. Secretary of Transportation. “So why shouldn't we all get a share? Instead of it all going to this small handful of super-rich people who are consolidating their own power, but just like mega-mega-billionaires are consolidating their power, right? We need to have a tax policy that does that.”
Bezos, however, remains optimistic. As he said in Italy, “I don't see how anyone can be discouraged who is still alive.”
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