Carl Bass on Financial Success

About Carl Bass

In two recent podcast appearances, former Autodesk CEO Carl Bass discussed the company's history, his departure and return, and his views on current technology trends. He recounted Autodesk's founding, noting that the company's name stood for "automated desktop" and that early AutoCAD was initially considered only suitable for small buildings, though it was later used on the Freedom Tower. Bass described being fired by then-CEO Carol Bartz in the 1990s after telling her the company was "a messed up place," only to return three years later when Autodesk acquired his startup, Buzzsaw. He served as COO and later CEO until around 2016. Bass characterized the transition to subscription licensing as "not that much fun" during the change but said it became "financially very beneficial." Bass offered several strong opinions on current technology. He said he believes "there is no reason" for 2D drawings in 2026 and that those who still use them "should be shot in the head." He stated that "the vast majority of money invested in AI will be lost" but predicted it will produce "dozens of very valuable companies," comparing the situation to the dot-com boom. Bass expressed skepticism about humanoid robots, saying he "would absolutely never" design one from scratch, and criticized efforts to achieve full self-driving without lidar or radar, calling it "a bad idea." He described machine learning as "the biggest change I've seen in my lifetime," on par with the internet and the PC.

Profile compiled from Carl Bass's verified public interviews and appearances. See all quotes & transcripts →