Amazon Employees Show Up to City Council Meetings to Demand Limits on Data Centers
Amazon Employees Show Up to City Council Meetings to Demand Limits on Data Centers
亚马逊员工现身市议会，要求限制数据中心建设
Three 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. 周三，三名亚马逊员工公开呼吁对新建数据中心进行监管。他们向西雅图的民选官员表示，这些备受争议的 AI 核心设施如果缺乏监管，将对该地区的生态环境、经济发展和公共安全构成威胁。
“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.” “地方政府应与社区利益相关者合作，为数据中心的建设设定准则，”亚马逊高级软件工程师 Liesl Wigand 在一场城市听证会上说道，“我们不能为了让大型科技公司赢得 AI 竞赛，就任由它们烧毁西雅图。”
The comments by Wigand and two other Amazon software engineers 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. Wigand 和另外两名亚马逊软件工程师的言论，标志着美国各地针对过去几年数据中心快速扩张的抗议运动出现了重大升级。据支持西雅图此次行动的劳工组织者称，尽管包括亚马逊在内的多家大型科技公司员工此前曾抱怨过数据中心的负面影响并呼吁加强监管，但此前从未有人如此公开且明确地表达过立场。
Patrick Schloesser, who has worked 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. 在亚马逊工作了近六年的 Patrick Schloesser 表示，数据中心提供的可再生能源应超过其消耗量，并应提供电力存储以支持更广泛的电网。Schloesser 还呼吁对科技公司征收新税，并建立“由员工主导的安全委员会，向市政府报告”任何对西雅图“构成风险”的 AI 工具。Schloesser 认为，科技公司急于建设数据中心，这给了西雅图向它们争取让步的筹码。
Another engineer, Darius Irani, suggested during a separate committee hearing later on Wednesday that the city should require transparency about the companies behind particular projects and their ongoing water and electricity usage. “There’s a world in which more data centers could bring us closer to a good future, but it will exist only if we dream big and keep power in the hands of the people,” Irani said. 另一位工程师 Darius Irani 在周三晚些时候的另一场委员会听证会上建议，市政府应要求相关项目背后的公司提高透明度，并公开其持续的水电消耗情况。“在某种理想情况下，更多的数据中心可能会让我们离美好的未来更近，但这只有在我们拥有宏大愿景并将权力掌握在人民手中时才能实现，”Irani 说道。
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. 科技公司和房地产开发商已宣布计划投入数千亿美元，在美国各地建设数十个数据中心，以支持对人工智能聊天机器人和其他生成式 AI 技术激增的需求。几乎每个州的社区都组织起来反对这些项目，理由是担心电力和水资源消耗、有毒废物、有害排放、噪音、税收减免，以及 AI 是否是一项值得推进的技术。
Amazon did not comment in time for publication. Other tech giants, including Microsoft and Google, have recently tried to preempt backlash to their data center projects and get ahead of potential regulations around the country by strengthening commitments to transparency and environmental protections. 亚马逊未能在本文发表前及时置评。包括微软和 Google 在内的其他科技巨头最近试图通过加强对透明度和环境保护的承诺，来预先化解对其数据中心项目的抵制，并应对全国范围内潜在的监管措施。
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. 在西雅图，市政府官员正在考虑暂停发放数据中心许可证一年，以便有时间为这些项目制定监管规则。根据城市记录，西雅图目前没有任何针对数据中心的具体规定。市政府表示，虽然该市目前有一些小型数据中心，但已有几家公司表示有兴趣建立“大规模”设施。它们的到来可能会推高其他居民的水电价格并增加碳排放，而市政府目前几乎没有干预的权力。
All three 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 next week when the full city council could vote on the one-year pause ordinance. 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. 这三名公开发言的员工都是“亚马逊气候正义员工”（Amazon Employees for Climate Justice）组织的成员。该组织由现任和前任员工组成，长期以来一直倡导公司更好地解决其业务对环境的影响。下周，当市议会全体会议可能对“暂停一年”的条例进行投票时，该组织的其他成员可能会继续发言。“亚马逊气候正义员工”还敦促市政府官员在制定数据中心规则时，与代表一线员工的团体（如工会）进行磋商。
Two of the Amazon employees were among about 30 members of the public, including some describing themselves as laid-off tech workers, who spoke during a comment period at a 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. 这两名亚马逊员工是约 30 名公众发言者中的一员，其中还包括一些自称被裁员的科技工作者。他们在土地利用与可持续发展委员会的会议评论环节发言，该委员会由五名成员组成，随后投票通过了推进拟议中的数据中心暂停令。大多数发言者都支持这一措施。
The other employee addressed the city’s Parks and City Light Committee. None of the Amazon workers explicitly expressed support for the pause, but rather explained what they believed could be the benefit of establishing broader rules for the industry. 另一名员工则在市公园与城市照明委员会发言。这些亚马逊员工都没有明确表示支持“暂停”，而是解释了他们认为为该行业建立更广泛规则可能带来的益处。
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 long raised concerns about AI furthering oil and gas production. 多家大型科技公司的员工对雇主全力发展强大 AI 能力的做法感到沮丧。去年，超过 1,000 名亚马逊员工匿名签署了一封公开信，警告公司所谓的“不惜一切代价、超高速发展 AI”的方法可能带来的危害。微软员工也长期对 AI 助推石油和天然气生产表示担忧。
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. 最近，Meta 的员工请愿反对在笔记本电脑上安装用于训练 AI 系统的追踪软件，公司随后允许了更多豁免。Meta 员工还对公司通过大规模裁员来为 AI 项目腾出资金的做法感到不满。在英国，Google 员工今年成立了工会，很大程度上是因为反对公司将 AI 系统承包用于他们认为令人担忧的军事用途。但“亚马逊气候正义员工”的组织者认为，此前没有任何一家公司的员工曾以个人名义公开呼吁对数据中心进行监管。
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. 一位居住在西雅图的亚马逊前经理在接受《连线》（WIRED）采访时质疑，既然新兴技术允许设施建在远离人口中心的地方，为什么还要把数据中心设在城市区域。他同时质疑了那些可能减缓行业进步的监管措施是否有必要。