404 Media tracks rare books to Amazon site where printed volumes are scanned and destroyed for AI training

Independent tech outlet 404 Media said it placed a tracking device inside a shipment of rare books and followed the package to an Amazon facility in Las Vegas, where employees allegedly scan printed books and destroy them in the process for AI training. The report, published Monday, said the shipment ended up with Amazon’s VGT3 team, which workers described as receiving large loads of books, cutting off their bindings, and feeding pages through scanners. 404 Media said the investigation is the first public identification of where bulk book purchases linked to AI training are ending up. The report also said demand for pre-2022 printed books has risen because that text is less likely to be online and less likely to be machine-generated. It added that similar destructive scanning has already been used at scale by Anthropic under its internal Project Panama, while related copyright disputes are now playing out in court. Amazon said it buys books through commercial channels to help develop and improve products and services used by customers.