AirTag tracking reveals Amazon destroying rare books to train AI

404 Media hid an AirTag in a rare book from a ~1,000-book order and tracked it to Amazon's VGT3 facility in Las Vegas, where workers cut spines to scan pages for AI training, destroying the books. Amazon confirmed it "purchases books through commercial channels" but declined to detail the operation.
How this story unfolded
6 days · 5 reports · 3 community posts · 8 of 13 shown
- Aug 12
- Aug 17
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facilitysimonwillison.net
Amazon, once an online bookseller, is destroying rare books to train AI modelstechcrunch.com
Hidden Airtag reveals Amazon is trashing rare books to train AIarstechnica.com
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility
- Aug 18
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