'Staggering damage' | 1,000 Amazon staff sign letter to raise alarm over AI impact

More than 1,000 Amazon employees anonymously backed an open letter warning that the company’s “all-costs-justified, warp-speed approach to AI development” risks causing “staggering damage to democracy, to our jobs, and to the earth.”

The campaign was organised by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, whose members say they began gathering signatures last month before going public with the job titles of those who agreed.

The group says the effort has also drawn more than 2,400 external supporters from organisations including Google and Apple. Those who signed inside Amazon include senior engineers, product leaders, marketing staff and warehouse workers. A senior engineering manager with over two decades at the company said they backed the letter because they believed a manufactured “race” to deliver AI had “empowered executives to trample workers and the environment.”

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The warning comes as Amazon, alongside other major tech firms, ploughs billions into new data centres to train and deploy generative AI tools. The systems underpin internal products that support coding and documentation, as well as consumer-facing services such as Rufus, Amazon’s shopping chatbot. In recent remarks, CEO Andy Jassy said Rufus was on track to add $10billion in annual sales and was “continuing to get better and better.”