Amazon Workers Issue Warning About AI

It's no secret that some of the biggest companies in the world are investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI), and Amazon is no different. However, over a thousand Amazon workers are pushing back against those efforts.

In an open letter shared this week, over 1,000 Amazon workers warned that the company's “all-costs-justified, warp-speed approach to AI development” could cause “staggering damage to democracy, to our jobs, and to the earth.”

Open Letter to Amazon

On Wednesday, the group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice published an open letter signed by more than 1,000 Amazon workers.

The letter was addressed to Amazon executive Andy Jassy and the company's "S-team," which is the senior leadership team at Amazon responsible for setting strategy, shaping company culture, and handling crises.

In the letter, the group of Amazon employees issued a major warning about the company's approach to embracing AI.

"In recent years, tech leaders have accelerated their race to build the most powerful AI first. 'Sink or swim,' 'AI is not going anywhere,' and 'work with it or be replaced' have become mantras in workspaces at Amazon and beyond," the open letter begins.

"We, the undersigned Amazon employees, have serious concerns about this aggressive rollout during the global rise of authoritarianism and our most important years to reverse the climate crisis. 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."

The letter warns that Amazon is casting aside its climate goals to build AI, is forcing us to use AI while investing in a future where it’s easier to discard us, and is helping build a more militarized surveillance state with fewer protections for ordinary people.

Employees Speak Out

A few Amazon employees recently spoke to Wired anonymously, fearing retaliation from their bosses.

“The current generation of AI has become almost like a drug that companies like Amazon obsess over, use as a cover to lay people off, and use the savings to pay for data centers for AI products no one is paying for,” a senior engineering manager with over 20 years at Amazon told Wired this week.

“It’s not just about what will happen if they succeed in developing superintelligence,” says a decade-long veteran in Amazon’s entertainment business. “What we’re trying to say is, look, the costs we’re paying now aren’t worth it. We are in the few remaining years to avoid catastrophic warming.”

Call to Action

In the open letter, the group demanded that Amazon's leadership commit to a few important things as they continue to move forward with their AI push.

• No AI with dirty energy.
• No AI without employee voices.
• No AI for violence, surveillance, or mass deportation.

"The Amazon employees signing this letter believe in building a better world — not in building bunkers to fall back to. We want the promised gains from AI to give everyone more freedom to play and rest, to spend time with family and friends, to be moved by nature, to create, to feel safe being who we are," the letter reads.

We'll have to see how Amazon responds.