Amazon's AI Push Under Fire as Staff Warn of Job Losses and Climate Damage

Amazon is making significant moves into the world of Artificial Intelligence, but this technological shift is stirring up considerable unrest within the company.

Employees are raising serious concerns, warning that the retail giant's aggressive AI push could lead to sweeping job cuts and cause substantial environmental damage.

The Internal Uproar: Workers Sound the Alarm

Over a thousand Amazon workers have put their names to an open letter detailing 'serious concerns' about how the firm is developing AI. They state that the company's' all-costs justified, warp speed' method for deploying the powerful technology will harm 'democracy, our employment, and the planet.'

The letter, which became public on Wednesday, was signed by the Amazon staff without their names attached. This follows a month after the company announced significant job cuts as it steps up the use of AI in its operations.

The signatories hold various roles, including developers, product overseers, and site workers. Demonstrating similar AI concerns across the entire sector, the letter also received backing from over 2,400 employees at companies such as Meta, Google, Apple, and Microsoft.

The letter lays out several requests to Amazon regarding the effects of its operations on its staff and the natural world.

AI and the Job Market: Fear of Mass Layoffs

Employees are asking the firm to supply all its data facilities with clean energy, ensure its AI-driven products and services do not enable 'violence, surveillance and mass deportation,' and establish a working group made up of non-managers' that will have significant ownership over org-level goals and how or if AI should be used in their orgs, how or if AI-related layoffs or headcount freezes are implemented, and how to mitigate or minimise the collateral effects of AI use, such as environmental impact.'

Staff members connected to the campaign group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice put together the letter. A person who helped write the letter explained that employees felt obliged to raise their concerns due to negative encounters with AI programs at work, as well as broader environmental concerns about the AI boom.

The team, this individual noted, aimed to propose a superior method for creating, rolling out, and utilising the technology.

'I signed the letter because of leadership's increasing emphasis on arbitrary productivity metrics and quotas, using AI as justification to push myself and my colleagues to work longer hours and push out more projects on tighter deadlines,' explained a long-serving lead developer, who has worked at the company for more than ten years, and chose to remain unnamed due to worrying about retaliation.

The Human Cost of AI Adoption

The letter claims Amazon is 'casting aside its climate goals to build AI.' Similar to other businesses competing in the generative AI race, Amazon has invested heavily in building new data centres to run new tools – these facilities require more resources and consume large amounts of electricity to function.

The company intends to commit $150 billion (£113.41 billion) to data centres over the coming 15 years, and recently announced it will put $15 billion (£11.34 billion) into building data centres in northern Indiana and a minimum of $3 billion (£2.27 billion) for data centres in Mississippi.

The letter asserts that Amazon's annual carbon output has 'grown roughly 35% since 2019,' even though the organisation pledged in 2019 to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. It cautions that many of Amazon's investments in AI structures will be in 'locations where their energy demands will force utility companies to keep coal plants online or build new gas plants.'

'AI' is being used as a magic word that is code for less worker power, hoarding of more resources, and making an uninformed gamble on high-energy-demand computer chips magically saving us from climate change,' said an Amazon customer researcher, who asked not to be identified due to concerns over repercussions for speaking out.

'If we can build a climate-saving AI – that's awesome! But that's not what Amazon is spending billions of dollars to develop. They are investing fossil fuel energy draining data centres for AI that is intended to surveil, exploit, and squeeze every extra cent out of customers, communities, and government agencies.'

Management Rejects Staff Claims

Speaking to The Guardian, Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser disagreed with the employees' claims and highlighted the company's climate targets. 'Not only are we the leading data centre operator in efficiency, we're the world's largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy for five consecutive years with over 600 projects globally,' said Glasser.

'We've also invested significantly in nuclear energy through existing plants and new SMR technology–these aren't distractions, they're concrete actions demonstrating real progress toward our Climate Pledge commitment to reach net-zero carbon across our global operations by 2040.'

The Balancing Act: Profit Versus Principle

As Amazon advances its AI technology, the company finds itself caught between its ambitious drive for efficiency and the mounting pressure from its own workforce regarding ethics and environmental impact.

While management asserts its commitment to renewable energy and net-zero targets, the staff's persistent concerns underscore a fundamental tension: whether technological progress will truly benefit all stakeholders—or simply accelerate costs for the planet and its people.