More than 1,000 Amazon employees have signed a newly published open letter, expressing deep concern about the company's AI development strategy "at all costs, at dizzying speed".
According to them, this approach could cause serious damage to jobs and the environment, especially in the context of Amazon's announcement of a cut of up to 14,000 locations globally.
The letter was signed by employees in many departments - engineers, product managers, warehouse staff and received more than 2,400 signatures from employees at other technology corporations such as Microsoft, Meta, Google and Apple.
The group of employees affirmed that because they directly develop, operate and use AI, they are responsible for speaking out when they see clear risks.
According to the open letter, Amazon could influence climate change commitments to pursue AI expansion. Despite having declared net zero carbon emissions by 2040, the company's emissions have increased by 35% since 2019.
On the other hand, a plan to spend $150 billion to build AI data centers, many in drought-affected areas, will consume huge amounts of water and put great pressure on the energy system.
The employee also accused Amazon of pushing to reduce the requirement for data centers to use clean energy.
An important part of the open letter points out the situation where workers are directly affected by the AI transformation process. According to the staff, they are assigned to build AI models for vague purposes, while promotion opportunities are cut and workload increases sharply.
The logistics departments, which are already under high pressure, are said to be affected by overtime, supervision and the risk of injury.
Amazon staff also expressed concern about the application of AI in large-scale monitoring. They said that Amazon, along with other large technology corporations, has been pushing to limit AI regulations in the US for many years to come, causing the risk of overusing to increase.
The letter is now published on amazonclimatejustice.org, where many employees continue to sign anonymously to express their concerns.
