Several Amazon employees have penned an urgent open letter to chief executive officer (CEO) Andy Jassy, decrying the tech giant's breakneck push into artificial intelligence (AI) as a reckless gamble that endangers workers, democratic freedoms, and the planet.
The missive, organised by the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice group, bears the signatures of 1,039 staffers – including software engineers, product managers, warehouse associates, and those directly building AI systems – with the tally continuing to climb. In a stark rebuke, the workers declare, "We believe that the all-costs-justified, warp-speed approach to AI development will do staggering damage to democracy, to our jobs, and to the earth." They add, "We’re the workers who develop, train, and use AI, so we have a responsibility to intervene," underscoring their frontline role in the technology's creation.
£118 billion investment in new data centres
The letter arrives amid Amazon's aggressive expansion of AI infrastructure, including a planned £118 billion investment in new data centres to fuel the technology. Employees accuse the e-commerce giant of sidelining ethical safeguards in favour of market dominance, at a moment when authoritarian regimes are proliferating globally and the window to avert catastrophic climate change is narrowing.
Central to their grievances is the environmental toll. Despite Amazon's 2019 pledge to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, the company's annual emissions have surged by roughly 35 percent since then, largely driven by data centre expansion. The letter highlights how these facilities, often sited in drought-afflicted regions, guzzle scarce water and electricity, potentially propping up coal-fired power plants or spurring new gas infrastructure.
Amazon lobbying efforts
"Amazon even killed legislation that would have required its data centres to use clean energy," the signatories charge, pointing to lobbying efforts that have thwarted regulatory efforts. They further lambast Amazon Web Services (AWS) for providing AI tools to oil and gas firms, enabling deeper fossil fuel extraction and exacerbating planetary harm.
On the workforce front, the employees describe a grim tableau of intensified surveillance, burnout, and insecurity. Warehouse staff face ramped-up productivity quotas and injury risks, while office workers grapple with mandates to integrate AI into "wasteful" tasks, shorter deadlines, and scant investment in professional growth. This comes hard on the heels of mass redundancies: Amazon announced cuts affecting up to 30,000 corporate roles last month to rein in post-pandemic hiring excesses, with 14,000 jobs ultimately axed. Jassy himself has signalled a future with "fewer humans" in the workforce, a vision the letter portrays as dystopian amid the company's legal challenge to the US National Labor Relations Board, which safeguards union rights.
AI's erosive effect on democracy
Perhaps most alarmingly, the workers warn of AI's erosive effect on democracy. They allege Amazon is complicit in erecting a "militarised surveillance state," through partnerships with defence contractors on autonomous weapons and cloud services powering deportations via collaborations with the US Department of Homeland Security and Palantir. The firm, alongside Meta, Microsoft, and Google, has lobbied against AI regulations for a decade, while founder Jeff Bezos's stewardship is cited as skewing media narratives on the technology. "All of this is daunting, but none of it is inevitable," the letter asserts, rejecting fatalism in the face of these threats.
In a trio of stark demands, the employees call for "no AI with dirty energy," mandating a public roadmap to 100 per cent renewable power for data centres and an end to AI support for fossil fuel industries. They seek "no AI without employee voices," via non-managerial working groups to oversee AI deployment, redundancies, and environmental offsets. Finally, they insist on "no AI for violence, surveillance, or mass deportation," urging Amazon to shun tools that bolster conflicts, policing, or rights abuses – including those implicated in Gaza surveillance.
The appeal has garnered robust external backing, with over 2,400 signatories from rivals including Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Uber, and even The Washington Post. This cross-industry solidarity amplifies the letter's resonance, echoing broader anxieties over Big Tech's unchecked AI ambitions.
