Amazon Workers Issue Warning About Company’s ‘All-Costs-Justified’ Approach to AI Development

more than 1,000 Amazon employees have anonymously signed an open letter warning that the company’s allegedly “all-costs-justified, fast-paced approach to AI development” could cause “enormous harm to democracy, our jobs, and the planet,” an internal advocacy group announced Wednesday.

Four members of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice told WIRED that they began asking workers to sign the letter last month. After reaching its initial goal, the group on Wednesday published the job titles of Amazon employees who signed on and revealed that more than 2,400 supporters from other organizations, including Google and Apple, have also joined.

Amazon supporters include high-ranking engineers, senior product leaders, marketing managers, and warehouse workers spanning many of the company’s divisions. A senior engineering manager with more than 20 years of experience at Amazon says he signed on because he believes the manufactured “race” to create the best AI has empowered executives to crush workers and the environment.

“The current generation of AI has become almost like a drug that companies like Amazon love to use as cover to fire people, and use the savings to pay for data centers for AI products that no one is paying for,” the employee says.

Amazon, along with other big tech companies, is set to invest billions of dollars to build new data centers to train and run generative AI systems. This includes tools to help workers write code and consumer-facing services like Amazon’s shopping chatbot, Rufus. It’s easy to see why Amazon is pursuing AI. Last month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced that Rufus is on track to increase Amazon’s sales to $10 billion annually. “It just keeps getting better and better,” he said.

AI systems demand significant electricity, which has forced utility companies to turn to coal plants and other carbon-emitting sources of energy to support the data center boom. The open letter demands that Amazon abandon carbon fuel sources at its data centers, stop its AI technologies from being used for surveillance and mass deportations, and stop forcing employees to use AI in their work. “We, the Amazon employees signed below, have serious concerns about this aggressive rollout during our most critical years to reverse the global rise of authoritarianism and the climate crisis,” the letter says.