Amazon's rapid expansion into artificial intelligence has triggered unusually broad internal dissent, as more than a thousand employees warned that the company's aggressive rollout of AI could accelerate layoffs, undermine climate commitments and expand surveillance capabilities. The pushback comes as Amazon plans major data-center investments to support AI tools, prompting workers to argue that the strategy ignores both environmental risks and the human cost of automation.
The open letter, signed anonymously and shared publicly this week, describes "serious concerns" about an "all-costs justified, warp speed" approach to AI deployment. The signatories span engineers, product staff and fulfillment-center workers, and the initiative coordinated by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice also received support from more than 2,400 employees at Meta, Google, Apple and Microsoft. Workers said they chose anonymity out of fear of retaliation in light of recent layoffs tied to automation.
The authors urged Amazon to power all data centers with clean energy, prevent AI systems from enabling "violence, surveillance and mass deportation," and create a non-managerial working group with authority over organizational AI decisions, including whether "AI-related layoffs or headcount freezes" occur. A participant who helped draft the letter said concerns stemmed from firsthand experiences with internal AI systems and the increasing overlap between automation and workplace quotas.
One long-tenured lead developer, speaking anonymously, said, "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." That sentiment reflects widespread anxiety about job stability as AI implementation accelerates.
Workers also said Amazon is abandoning its climate pledges in service of AI expansion. The letter states the company is "casting aside its climate goals to build AI," citing Amazon's rising carbon emissions-up roughly 35% since 2019-and multibillion-dollar plans for new data-center infrastructure. Amazon has committed $150 billion in data-center spending over 15 years, including $15 billion in Indiana and at least $3 billion in Mississippi, investments employees argue will pressure utilities to keep coal and gas plants online.
An Amazon customer researcher who signed the letter said, "'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." The researcher added, "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."
Amazon disputed the allegations. In a statement to The Guardian, spokesperson Brad Glasser said, "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." He added, "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 standoff places Amazon between two competing pressures: the financial incentives tied to expanding generative AI and the internal and external demands for ethical safeguards, environmental limits and workforce protections. Employees argue the company risks repeating the pattern of industries that embraced automation before evaluating its social costs, while Amazon insists its investments balance innovation with climate commitments and efficiency gains.
