In an interview with The Economic Club of New York, Eric Schmidt mentioned that people, especially Americans, should be grateful for the efforts of tech companies like Amazon.
Eric Schmidt had served as CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011 and later served as executive chairman of both Google and its parent company, Alphabet.
In a Business Insider report, Schmidt was quoted as saying during the interview:
“The benefit of these corporations, which we love to malign, in terms of the ability to communicate, the ability to deal with health, the ability to get information, is profound.
“Think about what your life would be like in America without Amazon … be a little bit grateful that these companies got the capital, did the investment, built the tools that we’re using now and have really helped us out.”
The Economic Club of New York conducted this interview with Eric Schmidt over a video conference. It is titled, Virtual Event: The Technological Response to COVID-19 and you can watch it below:
Amazon, since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, has been making donations towards helping the world get through it. The company had started offering workers paid sick-leave during the beginning of the virus in America.
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In addition, when its workers started testing positive for the virus, it put policies in place to improve health conditions. It is also likely that it would be distributing test kits worldwide.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO, also made contributions to organisations helping out. Further, it had announced shifting its focus to only stocking up on essentials until the pandemic passes.
Schmidt further explained that Amazon can provide expertise to authorities. He said:
“Companies like Amazon know how to supply and distribute efficiently. They will need to provide services and advice to government officials who lack the computing systems and expertise.”
Other tech companies are also contributing to the coronavirus struggle. Apple and Google recently announced a partnership that would aid tracking virus’ cases. There have also been several donations from others like TikTok, Facebook, Twitter and many more.
Still during the interview, he condemned the US government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He stressed that the organisation was one month late. This, he said, has cost lives.
Eric Schmidt is currently technical advisor to Alphabet and chair of the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Advisory Board.
Meanwhile, Amazon recently announced that it will be stopping operations in France. It made the announcement after an unfavourable lawsuit which it said it would still appeal in court.
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