Damaging to jobs, planet, and democracy! Over 1,000 Amazon workers sign open letter on AI rollout

In one of the largest internal protests in the company’s history, over 1,000 Amazon employees have signed a powerful open letter to CEO Andy Jassy and the senior leadership team, warning that the company's "all-costs justified, warp-speed" approach to Artificial Intelligence development threatens jobs, climate goals, and democratic norms.

The letter, organized by employees affiliated with Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, was published anonymously and quickly gained support from over 2,400 external workers from companies including Meta, Google, and Microsoft. Signatories range from senior software engineers and product managers to warehouse associates, underscoring the broad concern across all tiers of the company.

The triple threat: Jobs, climate, and surveillance

The employees' concerns center on three primary areas where Amazon's aggressive AI strategy is creating unsustainable risks:

1.The climate cost

The letter directly accuses Amazon of prioritizing the AI race over its environmental commitments. Despite the company’s 2019 pledge to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, the workers cite reports showing Amazon's annual emissions have grown by roughly 35% since 2019.

They point to the planned $150 billion investment in new data centers for AI, warning that these facilities will often be located in areas that rely on fossil fuels, forcing utility companies to keep coal plants running or build new gas plants, directly undermining the company's climate goals.

2.Job threat and forced productivity

Employees express deep anxiety about job security following CEO Jassy's comments about a future Amazon "full of AI tools and agents" that would require "fewer humans."

Workers state they are being pressured to adopt AI tools for coding and writing, leading to expectations of "twice as much work" while simultaneously experiencing higher output quotas, shorter timelines, and limited investment in career advancement. The letter alleges this push is a justification for pushing out workers and imposing surveillance, especially on logistics and warehouse staff.

3.Ethical concerns: Surveillance and violence

The letter also demands that Amazon commit to "No AI for violence, surveillance, or mass deportation." Workers accuse the company of contributing to a more militarized surveillance ecosystem through partnerships with autonomous weapons software firms, cloud services used by government agencies, and the use of AI to monitor its own workforce. They warn this rapid AI development risks "staggering damage to democracy."

Next steps

To address these deep-seated concerns, the employees demand that Amazon leadership commit to three core principles:

• No AI with dirty energy: Implement a clear plan to power all data centers with 100% additional, local renewable energy, 24/7.

• No AI without employee voices: Form ethical AI working groups composed of non-managers with significant ownership over AI goals and decisions regarding layoffs or hiring freezes.

• No AI for surveillance or violence: Prohibit the use of Amazon's AI products and services for mass surveillance, violence, or mass deportation.

The protest marks a significant moment in tech worker activism, forcing the conversation about AI deployment to move beyond executive suites and into the hands of the people building and operating the technology.