Amazon (AMZN) founder and board chair Jeff Bezos says that artificial intelligence (A.I.) is currently in an “industrial bubble.”
Speaking at a conference in Italy, Bezos said that during bubbles, every experiment or idea gets funded and that is likely the case with A.I. today.
“This is a kind of industrial bubble,” said Bezos. “Investors have a hard time in the middle of this excitement distinguishing between the good ideas and the bad ideas. And that’s also probably happening today.”
The term bubble typically refers to a period of inflated stock prices or valuations of companies that have disconnected from the fundamentals of a business.
One of the most famous bubbles that burst occurred in 2000, when frenzy over internet companies came to a screeching halt and technology stocks crashed.
Bezos laid out some of the key characteristics of market bubbles, noting that when they happen, stock prices are “disconnected from the fundamentals” of a business.
However, the executive chair of Amazon also stressed in his remarks that A.I. technology is real and will bring significant benefits to society while changing the global economy.
“AI is real and it is going to change every industry,” said Bezos.
Amazon itself is pushing hard into A.I., building data centres and adding the technology to products such as its Alexa virtual assistant.
AMZN stock is up 1% this year and trading at $222.41 U.S. per share.
