Bezos defends billionaires, hypes AI, talks taxes and praises Trump in CNBC interview

Key points

• Ultrabillionaire Jeff Bezos on Wednesday hyped artificial intelligence, blamed government meddling for economic woes and broadly defended himself and his megarich peers in an exclusive interview with CNBC.
• But the Amazon and Blue Origin founder, in a wide-ranging interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin, initially struck a populist tone, at times sounding more like some progressive Democrats than one of the most successful capitalists in history.
• "It's kind of a tale of two economies," Bezos told Sorkin at the start of the interview when asked about growing criticism toward billionaires.
• "You have a bunch of people in this country who are doing really well, but you also have a bunch of people in this country who are struggling." He quickly backed a tax policy idea that echoes what some Democrats have proposed to court working-class voters: Eliminating income taxes for the bottom half of U.S.
• earners.