Amazon is witnessing what is probably the biggest protest from its workforce. At least a thousand employees have put their signatures to an open letter addressed to Andy Jassy, CEO, Amazon, expressing their concerns over the extraordinary pace at which artificial intelligence is being embraced.
What does the open letter say? Well, it clearly states that Amazon is doing harm to not just its workforce and their livelihood, but to democracy as well as the planet in general with the alarming speed at which it is developing AI.
In trying to become an AI-first firm, the employees feel Amazon is simply ignoring its goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions over the next 15 years. Instead, it has been claimed by workers that the company’s emissions per year have gone up 35 per cent in the last six years or so. The workers feel overenthusiasm to embrace AI has fuelled this increase.
The open letter has been signed not just by engineers, product managers and warehouse employees but also by other companies such as Google, Meta, Uber, Microsoft, Apple and Salesforce.
It has barely been a month since Amazon announced its intention to reduce headcount and aggressively adopt AI. The company intends to invest $150 billion on establishing AI data centres.
The letter demands that Amazon rely on 100 per cent additional, local renewable energy to power its data centres.
The employees also want the company to eliminate the custom AI tools that increase the speed at which oil and gas companies drill oil. Another demand made by the workers is that Amazon should clearly state and make public how exactly it intends to fulfil its climate goals.
Additionally, the protestors wish for Amazon to create ethical AI working groups comprising members/workers who are not managers.