“Amazon Employees Humorously Caution About Company’s ‘Spare-No-Expense’ Attitude Towards AI Development”
“Amazon Workers Issue Warning About Company’s ‘All-Costs-Justified’ Approach to AI Development”
“More than 1,000 employees of Amazon signed an internal petition asking the company to host an annual shareholder meeting, where they will demand that the company stop selling its facial recognition tech, dubbed Rekognition, to government agencies. They also want Amazon Web Services, which provides cloud computing services, to stop hosting data analytics firm Palantir, which provides support for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).”
Imagine this: Over a thousand Amazon employees banding together to petition their corporate overlords to stop peddling their facial recognition software, Rekognition, to the government. Not only that, but they are also passively-aggressively requesting that Amazon Web Services cease their cozy relationship with data analytics firm Palantir, known associates of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got ourselves a tech sector rebellion.
These requests were not simply written on post-it notes and slapped on Jeff Bezos’ office door. No, these employees are requesting a face-to-face during the annual shareholder meeting. It’s almost like a plot from a cyberpunk thriller, but with less neon and more practical footwear.
The reasons for their demands are as noble as they are grounded in reality. They want to prevent the potential misuse of artificial intelligence technologies, especially in hands which might have questionable ethical standards. Did I hear someone say Big Brother? They also point towards the job insecurity that AI might bring, because really, who needs humans when you’ve got algorithms?
The resistance against Rekognition has been simmering for a while. Remember the time when AI researchers and civil rights organizations requested Amazon to stop providing Rekognition to law enforcement agencies? It seems that Amazon’s employees are finally taking a page out of their book.
At the end of the day, it’s all about accountability. With such powerful tools at their disposal, tech giants have a profound responsibility to ensure they are not misused. As thrilling as a dystopian future might sound, most of us would rather not live in one.
Let’s see how this plays out and how long it will take for Amazon to take note of these concerns raised by its own employees. Until then, grab your popcorn and enjoy the corporate drama.