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.
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.
