Amazon Employees Pen Letter Calling Out Company’s ‘Aggressive’ AI Push And The Social And Environmental Damage It Could Cause – AfroTech
Amazon employees are pushing back against the company’s AI-heavy pivot, accusing leadership of prioritizing AI investments over climate commitments and the human workforce.
Thousands have signed an open letter to CEO Andy Jassy and senior leadership. The letter, published last week, has drawn more than 1,000 signatures from Amazon employees — who can sign anonymously while listing their roles — and over 2,000 people outside the company.
“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,” the letter states.
“We’re the workers who develop, train, and use AI, so we have a responsibility to intervene.”
In the letter, employees accused Amazon of “casting aside its climate goals to build AI,” noting that the company’s annual emissions have risen roughly 35% since 2019 despite its pledge to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 — a gap they said is widening as a result of the AI race.
Employees noted that Amazon plans to spend $150 billion to build new AI data centers, many in “drought-stressed regions,” further straining limited water supplies. Others, they said, would require so much power that local utilities may keep coal plants running or build new gas plants to meet energy demands.
Amazon Responds To Climate Concerns
In a statement to Fortune, Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser said claims that the company has abandoned its climate commitments are false, adding that Amazon is continuing to make its operations — including data centers — more energy-efficient.
“Amazon is already committed to powering our operations even more sustainably and investing in carbon-free energy. This includes supporting two advanced nuclear energy agreements and investing in more than 600 renewable energy projects worldwide,” Glasser said, per Fortune.
Amazon Workforce Reductions
The letter also claimed Amazon is pressuring employees to adopt new AI tools even as CEO Jassy has shared plans to shrink its human workforce in favor of AI-driven “agents.”
As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Amazon — the world’s second-largest company by revenue, behind Walmart, according to Fortune — announced in October 2025 that it would cut roughly 14,000 jobs, about 4% of its 350,000-person corporate workforce, as it expands its use of AI.
However, during the company’s Oct. 30 earnings call, Jassy said the cuts were based on cultural factors and were not financially or AI-driven — “not right now at least,” as AFROTECH™ noted.
Jassy has previously said the company will rely more on AI to boost productivity and reshape work processes, reducing some jobs while creating new ones in other areas.
Employees wrote in the open letter that those who remained after recent layoffs are being asked to do more work in less time, create “wasteful” AI tools, and watch massive investments flow toward AI that could replace them, with little support for career development.
Amazon Employees Say AI Expansion Is Fueling An ‘Authoritarian Government’
The letter further accused Amazon of helping to build “a more militarized surveillance state with fewer protections for ordinary people.” Employees referenced a reintroduced feature that allows police to request video footage from Ring home security users and the use of AI to monitor warehouse workers.
The workers also pointed to Amazon’s partnerships and policy shifts — including cutting back on diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments to align with President Donald Trump’s agenda of ending “wokeness.”
“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,” the letter mentions.
What Do Amazon Employees Want?
In the letter, employees demanded that Amazon publish a plan to power all data centers with renewable energy, end custom AI projects for oil and gas drilling, and release a science-backed report on how it will meet its climate commitments.
They also demanded ethical AI working groups of non-managers with real authority over organizational AI use and a pledge not to use AI for surveillance, warfare, or mass deportation of immigrants.
“The Amazon employees signing this letter believe in building a better world — not in building bunkers to fall back to. We want the promised gains from AI to give everyone more freedom to play and rest, to spend time with family and friends, to be moved by nature, to create, to feel safe being who we are,” the letter notes.
“It’s time for us to step up and spark a conversation about the real benefits and costs of AI,” it continues. “…The choices we make now, for the planet, for its people and animals, matter more than ever. Let’s make ones we can be proud of.”
