Over 1,000 Amazon Staff Demand Ethics Over Automation Speed
Over one thousand Amazon employees, supported by thousands of external signatories from across the tech industry, have issued a scathing open letter to CEO Andy Jassy and the company’s leadership (S-team).
The letter delivers a stark warning that Amazon’s “all-costs-justified, warp-speed approach” to artificial intelligence risks causing “staggering damage to democracy, to our jobs, and to the earth.”
Organized by the activist group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), the protest signals a significant rise in internal dissent over the prioritization of automation over human and environmental welfare.
The Human Cost: Job Displacement and Intensified Work
A central concern for the signatories—who range from senior software engineers to warehouse associates—is job security.
The open letter comes amid recent corporate layoffs tied to AI adoption, fueling fears that automation will displace the human workforce instead of augmenting it.
Employees accuse management of forcing the use of internal AI tools, like the coding assistant Kiro, while simultaneously increasing expected output.
Some workers report being told to produce “twice as much work” due to the new tools, even when the AI output proves unreliable or inefficient.
This pressure, combined with increased surveillance and burnout, has created a culture of fear, with workers alleging that Amazon is “investing in a future where it’s easier to discard us.”
Amazon Climate Pledges Cast Aside
The employees heavily criticize Amazon for abandoning its environmental commitments in the pursuit of AI dominance.
Despite pledging to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, the letter highlights that the company’s annual emissions have grown by approximately 35% since 2019.
The construction of new data centers—part of a planned $150 billion investment for AI infrastructure—is accelerating this trend.
Workers point out that these energy-intensive facilities are often located in drought-prone areas or regions reliant on fossil fuels, directly contradicting Amazon’s stated climate goals.
The letter further alleges that the company has actively lobbied against clean-energy mandates for its data centers.
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