Amazon is destroying rare books to feed AI training data
404 Media hid an AirTag inside a rare book it suspected an AI company would buy, then tracked it to an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas. Workers there say their entire job is cutting bindings off bulk-shipped books and scanning them, destroying each volume in the process. Booksellers believe AI firms are working through ISBN lists to systematically scan every printed book. It is training data with a real, physical cost.