28/08/2026
An investigation by 404 Media uncovered what appears to be Amazon buying large quantities of rare and older books to be scanned for AI training...then SHREDDED!
And how did they find out?
A bookseller received an anonymous order for around 1,000 books. It seems suspicious, so they secretly put an AirTag inside the package to track where it was headed.
They followed the AirTag as the book travelled across the US. It eventually ended up at an Amazon facility in Las Vegas, where workers reportedly cut the bindings off books so the pages could be scanned quickly. The physical books are destroyed in the process.
Amazon has confirmed it purchases books to help develop and improve its products, but hasn't specifically confirmed that these books are being destroyed for AI training. They are running out of original material online to learn from, so this is the next step.
They are called "rare books" for a reason, and with behaviour like this, they may be gone forever ššš
Source: https://www.404media.co/we-tracked-a-shipment-of-rare-books-it-ended-at-an-amazon-ai-training-facility/
