“It’s not just about what will happen if they succeed in developing superintelligence,” says a decade-long veteran in Amazon’s entertainment business. “What we’re trying to say is, look, the costs we’re paying now aren’t worth it. We are in the few remaining years to avoid catastrophic warming.” … Some engineers are under pressure to use AI to double their productivity or else risk losing their jobs, according to a software development engineer in Amazon’s cloud computing division. But the engineer says that Amazon’s tools for writing code and technical documentation aren’t good enough to reach such ambitious targets. Another employee calls the AI outputs “slop.”
Amazon has a long history of optimizing labor. I’m not sure why it’s a surprise they’re doing the same thing to white collar work as they did to warehouse work. As for the environment. Corporations don’t exactly have a great track record as stewards of the climate.
That is all to say, petitioning the private enterprise to change is wishful thinking. Real change happens when we set in place regulations for the public good. Which protections? I don’t know.
Quote Citation: Paresh Dave, “Amazon Workers Issue Warning About Company’s ‘All-Costs-Justified’ Approach to AI Development | WIRED”, 2025-11-26, https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-employees-open-letter-artificial-intelligence-layoffs/