An open letter signed by over 1,000 Amazon employees has raised “serious concerns” regarding AI development, criticizing the company’s “all costs justified and warp speed” approach. It warns that the implications of such powerful technologies will negatively affect “democracies, our jobs, and our planet.”
Released on Wednesday, this letter was signed anonymously by Amazon employees and comes a month after the company’s announcement about mass layoffs intended to ramp up AI integration within its operations.
The signatories represent a diverse range of roles, including engineers, product managers, and warehouse staff.
Echoing widespread concerns across the tech industry, the letter also gained support from over 2,400 employees at other companies such as Meta, Google, Apple, and Microsoft.
This letter outlines demands aimed at Amazon regarding workplace and environmental issues. Employees are urging the company to provide clean energy for all data centers, ensure that AI-driven products and services do not facilitate “violence, surveillance, and mass deportation,” and establish a working group composed of non-administrators. “They bear significant responsibility for overarching objectives within the organization, the application of AI, the implementation of AI-related layoffs, and addressing the collateral impacts of AI, such as environmental effects.”
This letter is a product of an advocacy group of Amazon employees advocating for climate justice. One worker involved in drafting the letter shared that employees felt compelled to speak out due to adverse experiences with AI tools at work and broader environmental concerns stemming from the AI boom. The employee emphasized the desire for more responsible methods in the development, deployment, and use of technology.
“I signed this letter because executives are increasingly fixated on arbitrary productivity metrics and quotas, using AI to justify pushing themselves and their colleagues to work longer hours or handle more projects with tighter deadlines,” stated a senior software engineer who preferred to remain anonymous.
Climate Change Goals
The letter claims that Amazon is “abandoning climate goals for AI development.”
Like its competitors in the generative AI space, Amazon is heavily investing in new data centers to support its AI tools, which are more resource-intensive and demand significant power. The company plans to allocate $150 billion over the next 15 years for data centers, and has recently disclosed an investment of $15 billion for a data center in northern Indiana and $3 billion for centers in Mississippi.
The letter reports that Amazon’s annual emissions have seen an “approximately 35% increase since 2019,” despite the company’s promises. The report cautions that many of Amazon’s AI infrastructure investments will be in areas where energy demands compel utilities to maintain coal plants or establish new gas facilities.
“‘AI’ is being used as a buzzword to mask a reckless investment in energy-hungry computer chips, which threaten worker power, accumulate resources, and supposedly save us from climate issues,” noted an Amazon customer researcher who requested to remain anonymous. “It would be fantastic to build AI that combats climate change! However, that’s not where Amazon’s billions are directed. They are investing in data centers that squander fossil fuel energy for AI aimed at monitoring, exploiting, and extracting profit from their customers, communities, and government entities.”
In a statement to the Guardian, Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser refuted the employees’ claims and highlighted the company’s climate initiatives. “Alongside being a leading data center operator in efficiency, we have been the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy globally for five consecutive years, with over 600 projects globally,” Glasser stated. “We have also made substantial investments in nuclear energy through our current facilities and emerging SMR technology. These efforts are tangible actions demonstrating our commitment to achieving net-zero carbon across our global operations by 2040.”
AI for Enhanced Productivity
The letter also includes stringent demands regarding AI’s role within Amazon, arising from challenges employees are facing.
Three Amazon employees who spoke with the Guardian claimed that the company was pressuring them to leverage AI tools to boost productivity. “I received a message from my direct boss,” shared a software engineer with over two years at Amazon, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, “about using AI in coding, writing, and general daily tasks to enhance efficiency, stressing that if I don’t actively use AI, I risk falling behind.”
The employee added that not long ago, their manager indicated they were “expected to double their work output due to AI tools,” expressing concern that the anticipated production levels would require fewer personnel and that “the tools simply aren’t bridging the gap.”
Customer researchers shared similar feelings. “I personally feel pressure to incorporate AI into my role, and I’ve heard from numerous colleagues who feel the same pressure…”
“Meanwhile, there is no dialogue about the direct repercussions for us as workers, from unprecedented layoffs to unrealistic output expectations.”
A senior software engineer highlighted that the introduction of AI has led to suboptimal outcomes. The most common scenario involves employees being compelled to use agent code generation tools. “Recently, I worked on a project that was merely cleaned up after an experienced engineer attempted to use AI to generate code for a complex assignment,” the employee revealed. “Unfortunately, none of it functioned as intended, and he had no idea why. In fact, we would have been better off starting from scratch.”
Amazon did not respond to questions regarding employee critiques of its AI workplace policies.
Employees stressed that they are not inherently opposed to AI but wish to see it developed sustainably and with input from those who are directly involved in its creation and application. “I believe Amazon is using AI to justify its control over local resources like water and energy, and it also legitimizes its power over its employees, who face increasing surveillance, accelerated workloads, and implicit termination threats,” a senior software engineer asserted. “There exists a workplace culture that discourages open discussions about the flaws of AI, and one of the objectives of this letter is to show colleagues that many of us share these sentiments and that an alternative route is achievable.”
Source: www.theguardian.com
