Amazon’s CTO on the rapid progress of AI, and its impact on society

How has generative AI changed things for Amazon’s CTO? “I no longer need to talk to my customers about blockchain,” Werner Vogels jokes on a new episode of the GeekWire Podcast. 

Kidding aside, Vogels covers a wide range of topics on the show, including the potential for AI to make a meaningful difference in healthcare, the responsibility of technologists to ensure their inventions are used for good in the world, and the impact of AI on education. 

"That's a shift that is happening, where the university four-year education is much more about critical thinking, and learning how to learn, because technology will be a lifelong learning experience for anyone,” Vogels says, adding that on-the-job training will also be important.

Of course, we get the story behind the t-shirts he picks for his keynotes at AWS re:Invent, an annual tradition at the event. “If there is a link between the different t-shirts, it is that I feel that those that I have promoted have been innovators in their type of music,” he explains.

• Read more and listen here, and subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

• Previously on the GeekWire Podcast: Can AI save the world? New book from Microsoft aims to show the potential for positive change

Tech Moves: Former DreamBox Learning CEO Jessie Woolley-Wilson (above) is joining the venture capital ranks in a new role as operating partner at Silicon Valley firm Owl Ventures. Read more.

Hot Links:

• A former Amazon security engineer was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to forfeit $12.3 million in the first-ever conviction for the hack of a smart contract. (U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York)

• Dario Amodei of Anthropic AI talks about the future of AI training with Ezra Klein: “I think once things get to 2026, 2027, 2028, then the amount of compute gets to levels that starts to strain the capabilities of the semiconductor industry.” (New York Times)

• Microsoft has started testing ads in the Windows 11 Start Menu. (Neowin)

Thanks for subscribing to the GeekWire newsletter, and have a great weekend. — GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop, todd@geekwire.com, and GeekWire editor Taylor Soper, taylor@geekwire.com.