{
  "id": 1694600,
  "title": "Secret tracking device placed in rare book ends up in Amazon processing facility — destroying books to train AI models is 'all' the Vegas warehouse does",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/18/secret-tracking-device-placed-in-rare-book-ends-up-in-amazon",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-08-18T10:30:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Tom's Hardware",
    "slug": "tom-s-hardware",
    "url": "https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/secret-tracking-device-placed-in-rare-book-ends-up-in-amazon-processing-facility-destroying-books-to-train-ai-models-is-all-the-vegas-warehouse-does"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In recent months, AI companies have been purchasing large quantities of books, including rare editions, to train their AI models. This process often involves destroying the books. 404 Media conducted an investigation, placing a tracking device inside a rare book part of a 1,000-book order. The book arrived at a Las Vegas Amazon warehouse named VGT3. Employees at the facility explained their work involves cutting the spines off books and scanning them. According to the employees, VGT3, part of a larger facility called LAS8, is specifically dedicated to this task. A logo at the facility depicts a dinosaur with a book, seemingly ready to tear it apart. The investigation began in July when 404 Media asked a bookseller to place an Apple AirTag in a book within a 1,000-book shipment. Large orders like this have become more common in the AI era, with many believing they are used for training AI models rather than for increased book sales. The books in these orders often contain a mix of different titles. One bookseller in Ireland received an order for 5,000 books suspected to be for AI training, with titles ranging from non-fiction to absurd ones like \"The Eddie Hobbs Guide to your SSIA.\" The investigation found that these large orders generally do not include rare books without ISBNs. In 2024, court filings revealed Anthropic's Project Panama, aimed at destructively scanning all books globally. Anthropic was fined $1.5 billion for keeping 7 million pirated books in a central library. Meta was also found to have pirated nearly 82TB of books. Scanning books in bulk is not new; Google initiated Google Books in 2005 by scanning out-of-copyright titles from an on-campus library. However, the scale and speed of the current operations seem to be faster than Google's early efforts. The reason behind facilities like VGT3 operating as they do is likely due to cost, as major companies now need to purchase the books that were previously pirated.",
  "summary": "404 Media placed an AirTag inside a shipment of 1,000 books, which landed at an Amazon facility that reportedly spends all day cutting the spine off of, and scanning, books.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}