Amazon CEO Andy Jassy tells young people to embrace AI but keep their critical thinking
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says young people cannot avoid artificial intelligence and should learn to use it, but warns against letting it replace human judgment and critical reasoning.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says young people cannot avoid artificial intelligence and should not try to wish it away, but he cautions that the technology must not take the place of critical thinking and judgment. Speaking on The a16z Show, Jassy said the advice he gives young people, including his own two children, is to engage with AI directly because it will shape their lives and work in every setting.
Jassy, who succeeded Jeff Bezos as Amazon CEO in 2021, leads a company valued at $2.6 trillion that has become No. 1 on the Fortune 500 list. He said his children, ages 25 and 22, are part of the same generation navigating the AI shift that is reshaping education and the workplace. He noted that neither of them is a developer, yet both have used AI to build applications, which he presented as proof that the tools are accessible to people from all backgrounds.
"You need to learn about it, educate yourself, use it a lot," Jassy said. "Try doing things outside your comfort zone. Use it as a focal point of how you operate day to day and how you use tools at work." He said AI can help people reach a productive starting point faster, using business school as an example. Tasks such as reading, research and note-taking, which some students previously skipped, can now be handled more quickly with the technology, he said.
Jassy also warned against relying on AI too heavily. He said AI-generated writing can often be recognized as "not quite right" because its pieces do not fit together well. "I still think you're going to need human judgment and ingenuity and invention and experimentation and thinking about how all the pieces come together to end up building amazing experiences and businesses," he said. "I think you want to use the tools, and they're going to be huge aids, but I still think critical reasoning and thinking is going to be very important in everything we do."
Jassy's view echoes a broader theme among business leaders. KIND bar founder and Shark Tank investor Daniel Lubetzky told Fortune last year that critical thinking is in high demand and will become more so, adding that AI lacks the creativity humans bring. He advised young people to study history and philosophy and to keep asking why, tracing claims back to their sources. Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman told CNBC last year that young workers should cultivate creativity, critical thinking and flexibility as AI changes the nature of their jobs.
Amazon declined Fortune's request for comment on Jassy's remarks.
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