Amazon Employees Publish Open Letter Demanding Ethical AI Amid 14,000 Job Cuts

Employees at Amazon have circulated an open letter urging the company to adopt a more responsible and transparent approach to its AI rollout — a plea that arrives as Amazon announces a fresh round of cuts involving some 30,000 corporate roles, roughly 4% of its white-collar workforce.

The letter, addressed to Amazon leadership, states: “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.”

It highlights the company’s push into AI-powered infrastructure — including a reported $150 billion investment in new data centers — and questions how this aligns with Amazon’s climate goals.

“We’re the workers who develop, train, and use AI, so we have a responsibility to intervene,” the letter continues, calling on Amazon to commit to: “No AI with dirty energy … No AI without employee voices … No AI for violence, surveillance, or mass deportation.”

The group argues that sensors, drone software, and cloud services that enable mass surveillance raid the boundaries of what Amazon says it stands for.

The timing is particularly sensitive. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has previously warned that extensive AI adoption would likely reduce the workforce. “We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today,” he wrote in June.

Many Amazon employees interpret the current layoffs, and the letter, as a call to ensure the human side of AI isn’t lost amid the company’s automation and cost-cutting push.