We are living in the 'golden age' of AI: Bezos
Artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies are entering a "golden age" of innovation, according to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Though consumers are seeing the emergence of AI with technologies like Amazon's Alexa voice assistant, many improvements are happening "beneath the surface," Bezos said at the Internet Association's annual gala last week. Improved search results, improved product recommendations and improved inventory forecasting have all been made possible with the use of AI. Humans are now solving problems using AI that existed in "the realm of science fiction" just a few decades ago, Bezos added.
Artificial intelligence development has seen an "amazing renaissance" and is beginning to solve problems that were once seen as science fiction, according to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Machine learning, machine vision, and natural language processing are all strands of AI that are being developed by technology giants such as Amazon, Alphabet's Google and Facebook for various uses. For example, Amazon's voice assistant Alexa, which is in its Echo speaker, relies on natural language processing – the ability for computers to understand human speech.

These AI developments were praised by the Amazon founder.

"It is a renaissance, it is a golden age," Bezos told an audience at the Internet Association's annual gala last week.

"We are now solving problems with machine learning and artificial intelligence that were … in the realm of science fiction for the last several decades. And natural language understanding, machine vision problems, it really is an amazing renaissance."

Bezos called AI an "enabling layer" that will "improve every business."

At Amazon, Bezos said that "cool" developments like Alexa and its Prime Air delivery drones use "tremendous amounts" of AI. But machine learning is being deployed across the company.

"I would say, a lot of the value that we're getting from machine learning is actually happening kind of beneath the surface. It is things like improved search results, improved product recommendations for customers, improved forecasting for inventory management, and literally hundreds of other things beneath the surface," Bezos said.

The Amazon CEO also said that the company is making AI techniques available to enterprise customers through its cloud division, Amazon Web Services.

Bezos is the latest tech chief executive to address the topic of AI. He did not go into some of the dangers of the technology as many of his counterparts have. For example, Jack Ma, CEO of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba , warned that society could face decades of "pain" due to technological advancements.