Two Amazon employees on Wednesday publicly called for regulations on new data centers, telling elected officials in Seattle that unchecked development of the sharply disputed nerve centers of AI threatens the region’s environment, economy, and safety.
“Local governments, in collaboration with community stakeholders, should be setting the terms for data center buildout,” Amazon senior software engineer Liesl Wigand said at a city hearing. “Let’s not let big tech burn Seattle to win the AI race.”
The comments by Wigand and another Amazon software engineer, Patrick Schloesser, mark a significant escalation in the protest movement across the US against the rapid construction of data centers over the past couple of years. While workers at several big tech companies, including Amazon, have complained about the negative effects of data centers and the need for greater oversight, none are believed to have done so as publicly and explicitly before, according to labor organizers supporting the effort in Seattle.
Schloesser, who has been at Amazon for nearly six years, said that data centers should have to supply more renewable energy than they consume and provide power storage to support the broader electricity grid. Schloesser also called for new taxes on tech companies and “worker-led safety committees that report to the city” about any AI tools that are “becoming a risk” to Seattle. Tech companies are desperate to get data centers built, giving Seattle leverage to extract concessions from them, Schloesser said.
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Both employees who spoke out are members of a collective of current and former workers known as Amazon Employees for Climate Justice that has long advocated for the company to better address the environmental impact of its business. Additional members of the group may speak at other city hearings where a one-year pause ordinance on data centers is expected to come up for debate, including later on Wednesday. Amazon Employees for Climate Justice is also urging city officials to consult on data center rules with groups representing frontline workers such as labor unions.
Tech companies and real estate developers have announced plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to construct dozens of data centers across the US to support surging demand for artificial intelligence chatbots and other generative AI technologies. Communities in nearly every state have organized against the projects, citing concerns about electricity and water usage, toxic waste, noxious emissions, noise, tax breaks, and whether AI is even a technology worth advancing.
Amazon did not immediately comment in time for publication. Other tech giants, including Microsoft and Google, have recently tried to preempt backlash to their data centers projects and get ahead of potential regulations around the country by strengthening commitments to transparency and environmental protections.
In Seattle, city officials are weighing a one-year pause on issuing permits for data centers to allow time for setting regulations on the projects. Seattle doesn’t currently have any rules specific to data centers, according to city records. The city has said it is home to some small data centers, but that several companies have expressed interest in setting up “large scale” developments. Their arrival could drive up water and power prices for other residents and increase carbon emissions with the city currently holding minimal authority to intervene.
The Amazon employees were among about 30 members of the public, including some describing themselves as laid-off tech workers, who spoke on Wednesday during a comment period at a city meeting of the Land Use and Sustainability Committee, a five-member panel that subsequently voted to advance the proposed data center moratorium. Most of the speakers favored the measure. The Amazon workers didn’t explicitly express support for the pause, but rather explained what they believed could be the benefit of establishing broader rules for the industry.
Workers across several big tech companies have grown frustrated about their employers’ all-out emphasis on developing powerful AI capabilities. Last year, over 1,000 Amazon employees anonymously signed an open letter warning of harms from the company’s allegedly “all-costs-justified, warp-speed approach to AI development.” Microsoft employees have also long raised concerns about AI furthering oil and gas production.
Recently, employees at Meta petitioned against the rollout of tracking software on their laptops to train AI systems, and the company later allowed for more exemptions from the initiative. The Meta workers have also been frustrated over the use of mass layoffs to free up cash for AI projects. In the UK, Google employees this year formed a union in large part because of opposition to the company’s AI systems being contracted for what they view as concerning military uses. But Amazon Employees for Climate Justice organizers don’t believe workers at any of the companies have advocated by name for regulations on data centers before.
Speaking to WIRED, a former manager at Amazon who lives in Seattle questioned why anyone wanted to locate a data center in an urban area, given that emerging technologies allow the facilities to be built further away from population centers. He questioned the need for regulations that might slow industry progress, but expressed support for workers’ right to speak freely without retaliation from Amazon.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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