Amazon has faced calls from investor Abrdn to step up monitoring its use of AI ahead of the retail and tech giant’s AGM this week.

Abrdn, one of the UK’s biggest fund managers that has a £1bn stake in the online retailer, has urged it to set up a committee of independent directors to deal with the impact of its AI usage on human rights

The investor is concerned about the risk of scandals or oversights at Amazon hitting its investment, according to The Sunday Times.

Previously, Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant has falsely claimed that the 2020 US presidential election was “stolen” from Donald Trump.

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Abrdn is voting for the establishment of the committee at Wednesday’s annual shareholder meeting, a motion put forward by American union federation AFL-CIO.

The motion also raises the possibility that AI can cause “unlawful employment discrimination”, highlighting reports that Amazon scrapped an AI tool that picked male job candidates over female ones, according to reports in 2018.

However, the online giant’s management opposes the motion, and argues that dealing with AI-related issues through its existing boardroom committees would be more effective.

Abrdn is also backing a resolution calling for an independent review of Amazon’s approach to workers’ rights to join unions, which states that US courts have found that it has violated labour laws and profitability could be boosted if employee relations are improved.

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