More than 1,000 Amazon employees have signed an open letter expressing deep concern over the company’s accelerating push into artificial intelligence. The workers claim Amazon is prioritizing AI dominance over its climate pledges and the wellbeing of its workforce, warning that the company’s approach could have “dire consequences” for the planet, democracy, and jobs.

The signatories-which include software engineers, product managers, warehouse workers, and even AI developers-criticize Amazon for expanding its data center infrastructure at the cost of rising carbon emissions and increased water consumption. They argue that Amazon’s massive AI investments contradict its public commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.

The letter also highlights growing anxiety among employees following Amazon’s new wave of layoffs, which coincide with the adoption of AI tools across its operations. Workers say they are being pressured to use AI while facing heightened output demands, fewer career growth opportunities, and rising job insecurity.

The employees further accuse Amazon of supporting policies and partnerships that could strengthen government surveillance and accelerate militarized uses of AI. They cite collaborations with defense-related AI companies, expanded surveillance technologies, and cloud services used by immigration authorities.

The group has issued three core demands: powering all AI development with clean energy, involving employees in decisions related to AI deployment and layoffs, and ending the use of Amazon technologies for violence, surveillance, or mass deportation.

According to the workers, this moment represents a critical turning point. They say Amazon must choose between ethical leadership and unchecked AI expansion.

OPEN LETTER FROM AMAZON EMPLOYEES

Dear Andy Jassy and S-team,

In recent years, tech leaders have accelerated their race to build the most powerful AI first. “Sink or swim,” “AI is not going anywhere,” and “work with it or be replaced” have become mantras in workspaces at Amazon and beyond. 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. 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.

We’re the workers who develop, train, and use AI, so we have a responsibility to intervene. Here’s why we’re sounding the alarm:

Amazon is casting aside its climate goals to build AI. We have just a few years to stop disastrous levels of warming. Yet despite committing to net zero carbon emissions by 2040, Amazon’s annual emissions have grown roughly 35% since 2019. The AI race is widening this gap. The company plans to spend $150 billion building new data centers for AI. Many of these will be in drought-stressed regions, where they will consume scarce water, or in locations where their energy demands will force utility companies to keep coal plants online or build new gas plants. Amazon even killed legislation that would have required its data centers to use clean energy. Meanwhile, AWS is helping oil companies drill for more oil and gas.

Amazon is forcing us to use AI while investing in a future where it’s easier to discard us.
Andy Jassy promised that soon Amazon will be full of AI tools and “agents,” and that he expects to employ fewer humans. He claims our (remaining) jobs will be “even more exciting and fun,” but here’s what we’re actually experiencing: higher expected output and shorter timelines, mandates to build AI tools for wasteful use cases, and massive investment in AI with little investment in career advancement. Our logistics coworkers have been especially impacted by work speedups, surveillance, injuries and burnout. All this, while Amazon is attempting to declare the National Labor Relations Board, which protects workers’ rights, unconstitutional.

Amazon is helping build a more militarized surveillance state with fewer protections for ordinary people.
Amazon, alongside Meta, Microsoft and Google, lobbied to ban state regulation on AI for the next ten years; Trump financially disincentivized state regulatory action in his AI Action Plan. Trump demanded an end to “wokeness” in AI; Amazon has scaled back its commitments to DEI and offered the administration a 1 billion dollar coupon for AWS, with a DOGE staffer calling the deal “a foundational piece to help implement President Trump’s AI Action Plan.” The military wants AI technologies at top speed; Amazon has announced a collaboration with an autonomous weapons software company. Trump’s ICE Director wants to run mass deportation “like Prime, but with human beings”; Amazon, a major provider of cloud services to DHS and to Palantir, literally does power mass deportation. Amazon is expanding the surveillance state in other ways, too. It’s making Ring AI-first and re-introducing a tool for police to request footage; it’s using AI to surveil warehouse workers, and, of course, its own customers.

Finally, Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, and has begun asserting more control over that publication; the other major AI players control mass information ecosystems like Instagram and X. If these collaborations continue, we will be ceding an unbelievable amount of power into the hands of an increasingly authoritarian government and a few companies willing to abandon any principles they claim to have in the race for AI dominance.

A better future is still within reach. But it requires guardrails. We demand Amazon leadership commit to the following:

1.    No AI with dirty energy.
Use 100% additional, local renewable energy 24/7 for AI data centers; stop custom AI work for oil & gas; publish a science-backed climate plan.

2.    No AI without employee voices.
Establish ethical AI working groups with real authority in every org, including decisions on AI use, job impacts, and environmental mitigation.

3.    No AI for violence, surveillance, or mass deportation.
Amazon sells a vast range of products and services. It should not be involved in surveillance of civilians, drone warfare collaborations, or supporting mass deportation systems.

We want AI to create more freedom - not less. This moment is incredibly consequential. The choices we make now matter more than ever.

Signed,
1,039 Amazon employees (and counting!)