Over 1,000 Amazon employees have written an open letter, warning the company about its rapid acceleration into artificial intelligence. The letter was on November 26, just months after Amazon announced plans to eliminate up to 14,000 corporate roles globally. The employees argue that Amazon’s “all costs-justified, warp speed” AI strategy poses risks to democracy, jobs, and the planet. The letter includes signatures from Amazon engineers, product managers, and warehouse associates, and has gained additional support from over 2,400 workers across major tech firms, including Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Meta.
What Amazon Employees Write In The Open Letter
The open letter begins with a stark warning, “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.”
Employees stress that as the people who develop, train, and operate Amazon’s AI systems, they feel a responsibility to speak up about the risks they see unfolding.
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Three Core Concerns Raised in Amazon Employees’ Open Letter
The letter outlines three primary areas of alarm:
Amazon’s pursuit of AI is overshadowing its environmental commitments.
Workers fear they are being asked to build tools that may ultimately replace them.
Amazon’s AI systems are being used in ways that could strengthen a militarised surveillance state with fewer protections for the public.
The letter notes that global warming could reach “disastrous levels” within the next few years.
Although Amazon has pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, its emissions have increased by around 35% since 2019, the employees point out.
Fear of Job Losses and Unsafe Working Conditions
The employees directly reference CEO Andy Jassy, who has promised that Amazon will soon be “full of AI tools and agents,” adding that the company expects to employ fewer humans in the future.
“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.”
Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
