Amazon is facing internal dissent as employees voice their concerns over the company’s AI strategies. In a bold move, a group of Amazon workers has reached out to CEO Andy Jassy and the executive team through an open letter, urging a reconsideration of current AI initiatives.
The letter, made public last week, carries the signatures of over 1,000 Amazon employees, spanning roles from Whole Foods cashiers to IT support staff. This group represents a small portion of Amazon’s vast workforce, which consists of approximately 1.53 million employees, as reported in the company’s third-quarter earnings release.
In their letter, the employees express worries that Amazon is prioritizing AI development at the expense of its climate commitments. They allege that the company is imposing AI technology on workers, planning workforce reductions in favor of AI, and contributing to an increase in “militarized surveillance” that threatens personal privacy.
“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,” the letter states. “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 highlights that Amazon’s global carbon emissions have increased since 2019, despite a commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2040.
In response, Amazon has described these claims as “categorically false and ignores the facts.” Brad Glasser, an Amazon spokesperson, emphasized that Amazon remains committed to sustainable operations and is actively investing in carbon-free energy initiatives, such as advanced nuclear energy agreements and over 600 renewable energy projects worldwide. He also noted efforts to improve energy efficiency in data centers.
Amazon’s carbon emissions rose by 6% last year, partly due to the rapid expansion of data centers.
In November, Amazon announced a significant investment plan of up to $50 billion to enhance AI and supercomputing capabilities for U.S. government clients on Amazon Web Services by 2026. Additionally, the company intends to allocate close to $150 billion for data center development over the next 15 years, as reported by Bloomberg in March 2024.
During the third-quarter earnings call, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky revealed that the company had invested $89.9 billion thus far this year, mainly to bolster Amazon Web Services, support AI demand, and enhance tech infrastructure, including data centers.
Concurrently, Amazon announced in October a reduction of around 14,000 corporate jobs, constituting about 4% of its 350,000-person corporate workforce, as part of an AI-focused restructuring. According to Reuters, the total number of job cuts could reach up to 30,000, marking Amazon’s largest single workforce reduction.
“What we need to remember is that the world is changing quickly. This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before,” stated Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people and experience, in a memo.
Amazon’s spokesperson Glasser directed Fortune to Galetti’s memo regarding the AI-related job reductions.
Employees expressed in the open letter that those remaining face increased productivity expectations, mandatory development of potentially unnecessary AI tools, and observe substantial investment in AI with minimal support for career growth.
The letter also raises concerns about transforming Amazon’s Ring doorbell into an AI-centric technology and providing a tool for police to request footage from its feed, warning of the power shift to an authoritarian regime and companies that disregard principles for AI dominance.
The signees demand Amazon outline a public plan to power data centers with renewable energy, involve employees in assessing AI usage, and ensure AI is not utilized 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,” the authors wrote. “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.”
Original Story at fortune.com