For the past two years, Mars, an exclusive three-day conference held in a hotel in the California desert and run by Amazon and its founder, Jeff Bezos, was largely secret. But this year, reporters were invited to the event, which is held for some of the world’s most successful geeks as The New York Times puts it. The focus of this year’s conference was artificial intelligence, something Amazon is hoping to buoy its reputation in. Bezos, who is the world’s richest man with a roughly $130 billion fortune, is slowly learning to be more comfortable in the spotlight. For Mars, Bezos and Amazon picked about 200 attendees, most from the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics and space. The Times writes that there were astronauts, philosophers, rocket scientists, Nobel prize winners and gravitational-wave astrophysicists in attendance. Everything at the event is free. It is a luxurious event, with a free Amazon Echo waiting in each hotel room, along with a cheese plate, other swag, and a note from Bezos that read, “We’ll consider this gathering a big success if you find something inspiring.” During the day, attendees presented on novel businesses or scientific breakthroughs, like new techniques for studying black holes or computer chips that, when implanted in the brain, can resolve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
Thanks for reading InsideHook. Sign up for our daily newsletter and be in the know.
