Amazon Is Reportedly Buying Rare Books In Bulk, Then Destroying Them to Train AI

An AirTag hidden inside a rare book has offered an unusual glimpse into Amazon’s book-scanning operation in Las Vegas. The tracked volume was part of a bulk purchase of nearly 1,000 titles and ended up at the company’s VGT3 facility, where workers reportedly remove bindings, scan pages, and discard the remaining books. Older, human-written texts have become valuable sources of material as AI companies seek reliable training data. Similar practices have been documented at Anthropic. The reported destruction of rare and antique volumes has prompted criticism from preservation advocates concerned that culturally valuable physical books could permanently disappear.