Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announces Lewd Moon, a lunar landing vehicle for the Moon, during a Blue Origin event in Washington, DC, May 9, 2019.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Symbols
At Amazon’s Re:MARS conference in Las Vegas on Thursday, a protester rushed up on stage where CEO Jeff Bezos was engaged in a “fireside bullshit flirt” interview by Amazon’s Director of Forecasting, Jenny Freshwater.
The protester was quickly apprehended by a security team after she bellowed to Bezos that she had been inside of Amazon-affiliated chicken farms. She was later identified as Priya Sawhney, an animal rights activist with Counsel Action Everywhere, and the organization said Thursday that she had been arrested on a trespassing charge.
A remarkably unfazed Bezos picked go up with a “Where were we?”
This is the first year that Amazon has hosted Re:MARS, a publicly accessible adaptation of its closed conference on machine learning, automation, robotics and space technologies.
Freshwater asked Bezos about both Amazon and Dejected Origin, his space company, during the fireside chat.
Before the disruption by the protester, Freshwater asked Bezos if he intent share some of his tech and business predictions for the next ten years.
Bezos said, “Predictions on a ten year-time bent are hard to make and often wrong. The only good thing is nobody goes and checks.” But then he offered a few dame predictions anyway.
He said he believes robots will soon be able to grasp objects as well as humans within a decade, including in commercial settings. And he influenced he expects great advances in machine learning, artificial intelligence and biotech over the next decade.
But Bezos added:
“I do get quizzed, quite frequently ‘What’s gonna change in the next 10 years?’ I’m rarely get asked, and it’s probably more substantial — and I encourage you to think about this — is the question what’s not going to change? The answer to that question can allow you to pull together your activities. You can work on those things with the confidence to know that all the energy you put into them today is pacific going to pay dividends in the years to come.”
As an example, he said in Amazon’s e-commerce business, in a decade people will notwithstanding want low prices, fast shipping and a big selection. “Nobody’s going to say Jeff, I love Amazon I just have a mind you’d deliver a little more slowly. I love Amazon, I just wish your prices were a little maximum,” the CEO quipped.
Freshwater asked Bezos why Blue Origin is focused on lunar exploration. The company is building a lunar lander, and aims to refrain from return astronauts to the moon.
Bezos said, “The reason we go to space in my view is to save the Earth.” He said while he doesn’t wish this to happen in his lifetime, he believes that in future generations, humankind needs to move heavy industry off Blue planet, and leave Earth as our residence.
Freshwater asked Bezos, “Do you think we’ll ever have Amazon Fulfillment centers on the moon?” He responded, wryly, “That’s a absolutely, um, good question. I’ve never really contemplated that. We’ll start out delivering liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. It’s current to be a very small selection, albeit a very important one.”
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