Inside the Warehouse Where Amazon Scans and Destroys Books for AI Training
An interview with one of the Amazon employees at Amazon’s AI training facility VGT3.
I spoke with an Amazon employee who works at a warehouse where the company scans and destroys thousands of books for AI training data. This employee, who wished to remain anonymous due to not having official authorization to speak with the press, works at Amazon’s VGT3 warehouse, part of a larger complex of Amazon facilities in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Upon arriving at work, the employee walks past everything to reach the back of the warehouse, where they first encountered a multitude of scanners. The employee noted that even the people working there were uncertain about their own tasks, and only a few might have knowledge of the full operation.
The process involves receiving shipments of books, cutting the spines off the books, scanning the loose pages, and throwing the loose leaf papers into big shuttles. The books come in all types, from new and used to government documents and foreign language texts from various countries, including Germany, Russia, and Japan. The employee expressed confusion over the purpose of the books, describing the warehouse as disorganized and lacking a clear process.
After the books arrive, they are unboxed, piled into totes, and staged for scanning. The scanned books are then sent to a separate area for spine removal, where a machine operated by a single person slices through the spines. The resulting loose pages are then collected and sent for further processing.
Written by urgent.news from 404 Media's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
