Fact check: Did Jeff Bezos say human use of water is slowing down AI? Here is what we found

Viral claims about Jeff Bezos saying that human use of water is delaying the growth of AI are circulating on the internet and social media. However, fact-checking shows that Bezos did not make the controversial statement. The fake claims are being attributed to Bezos, with reports suggesting that he said it at the annual VivaTech conference in Paris a few days ago.

Purported statement being attributed to Bezos

According to the claim, the billionaire allegedly said, "If we starve our data infrastructure of cooling resources just to sustain baseline human comfort, we're actively delaying the birth of a superintelligence." It further adds, “Sometimes you've to prioritise intelligence that will save us over biology that slows us.”

Fact check: No, he did not say anything about water and human use

He is being slammed for the purported words, but the truth is that Bezos did not say any of this. The unedited clip from the event proves that the words are wrongly being attributed to Bezos. We went through the live stream of the VivaTech event posted by Associated Press and did not come across the contentious words. Other people on the internet also wrote similar posts, saying that Bezos did not make any such statement. The billionaire talked about his space company, Blue Origin and his industrial AI startup, Prometheus. However, he did not talk about the use of water for data centres.

Reddit thread deletes post

Another check shows that the fake news originated from a Reddit thread, which has now deleted the post. Examining the statement on Gemini also revealed that it is incorrect. "This quote is entirely fake, though it recently circulated on platforms like Reddit, Hacker News, and X (formerly Twitter) wrapped in a convincing, manufactured screenshot," the AI tool responded when asked about the authenticity of the statement.

What Bezos said about AI at VivaTech conference

At the VivaTech conference, Bezos talked about Blue Origin and its role in establishing future moon bases. He also talked about Prometheus and AI in general. Bezos said that AI will not reduce jobs, but create a shortage of labour. "AI is going to create a labour shortage because it’s going to make it possible for people to identify more problems,” Bezos said during a session moderated by former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino. Dave Limp, chief executive of Blue Origin, was also at the event. Bezos goes on to say that the only thing limiting growth will be imagination.