Jeff Bezos on why Amazon will keep working with the DoD



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"If big tech companies are going to turn back on the DoD, this country is going to be in trouble," said Bezos on the Wired25 conference in San Francisco on Monday.

The billionaire has faced backlash from Amazon (AMZN) employees over its business deals with government agencies. It has already worked with the DoD and multiple law enforcement agencies have used its facial recognition system – Rekognition. Amazon employees and civil liberties organizations that the software could be used.

"We are going to continue to support the DoD, and I think we should," said Bezos. "One of the jobs of senior leadership is to make the right decision, even when it's unpopular."

Now Amazon is vying for a $ 10 billion contract with the Department of Defense to consolidate and host its data on the cloud.
Other tech giants have reacted differently to internal protests. Google is no longer competing for the $ 10 trillion contract, and it has not been renewed.

Bezos, however, is sticking to his plans.

The owner of the Washington Post newspaper, President Trump. His tensions with the current administration has not changed. Bezos' view of the United States, however.

"I like this country," said Bezos. "It's amazing, it's still the best place in the world, it's the place people want to come, there's no other countries where everybody's trying to get in. I'd like them to be in. I like them, I want all of them in. This is a great country and it needs to be defended. "

Amazon is not the only company doing business with the government. Last week, Blue Origin secured a $ 500 million contract with the federal government to work on a launching system.

He said some technologies could be misused, but it is not a reason to stop their development. He compared current technology to the invention of books, which has been used for good and bad, including "fascist empires."

"The last thing we'd ever want to do is stop the progress of new technologies," said Bezos.

Eventually, society will develop an "immune response" to bad uses of technology, according to Bezos.

"I think social media is increasing – unfortunately – identity politics, tribalism." I think the internet in its current incarnation is a confirmation bias machine, "said Bezos. "I'm worried that some of these technologies will be useful for autocratic regimes to enforce their role … But that's not new, that's always been the case and we will figure it out."

He went on to defend large companies like Amazon, as well as other large non-profits.

"I preach inside Amazon, this is going to happen, it's normal, do not take it personally," he said. "You want to live in a society where that happens."

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