We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility
We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.
Amazon is acquiring large quantities of rare books to utilize as training data for AI models, a practice that involves destroying the books after scanning them. A 404 Media investigation placed a tracking device on a rare book that they believed would end up at an AI company for training data, allowing them to track its journey.
The book ultimately arrived at an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas, Nevada. Employees working at this facility explained that they receive massive shipments of printed books, cut off their bindings, and scan the books to expedite the process. The book's logo featured an Amazon team called VGT3, which depicted a dinosaur holding a book.
Amazon spokesperson stated that they purchase books through commercial channels to improve their products and services for customers. The demand for books as training data sources is growing as AI companies seek to gather data that is not readily available on the internet and avoid model collapse. Booksellers reported a spike in sales of books in the past year, suspecting that AI companies were behind the increased purchases.
However, the anonymous nature of the marketplaces where they sell their books made it difficult for booksellers to identify the specific companies purchasing these books.
Written by urgent.news from 404 Media's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
