Code Conference Day 1 Roundup

Day one of Code Conference was marked by the attendance of Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) CEO Mark Fields, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) founder and CEO Jeff Bezos and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CEO Susan Desmond-Hellmann.

Related Link: Jeff Bezos Has Some Advice For Peter Thiel

Here is a roundup of key happenings at the event on day one:

• "Jeff Bezos said Amazon is taking voice-assisted tech devices really seriously, which is why more than 1,000 people are working on Amazon Alexa and Echo."
• "Bezos also explained how Amazon decides to kill projects, why it doesn't sell Apple TV or Google Chromecast devices and that he really, really isn't out to kill UPS. Despite Amazon Prime competes with Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), he said most consumers will probably pick both services."
• "Bezos waded into the Peter Thiel-Gawker fight, arguing that public figures (like Thiel) should "develop a thick skin.""
• "His opinions on the threat a President Donald Trump would pose to the press, like the Bezos-owned Washington Post? He's not scared."
• "Bezos thinks that in a few hundred years, our factories will be making stuff in space."
• Fields concedes that the future of cars will be determined increasingly by self-driving technology and software. But for Ford, the conversations with rivals Google and Uber quickly "get funky." He says there's not quite a "cultural fit."
• "Susan Desmond-Hellmann says that the Gates Foundation is experimenting with a novel technique to eliminate the Zika virus: Giving mosquitoes STDs."