It is a sign of the times that Amazon gets to call this fair use
An investigation reveals that Amazon is purchasing and destroying rare books to use their content as training data for artificial intelligence models. The process involves stripping bindings from physical copies to facilitate rapid scanning at a specialized warehouse.
Why it matters
This highlights the growing tension between AI development and intellectual property rights, specifically regarding the physical destruction of cultural and historical artifacts for data extraction.
Amazon is buying massive quantities of books, scanning them for AI training data, and destroying them in the process.
A 404 Media investigation was able to reveal Amazon’s book buying operation, which hasn’t been previously reported, by placing a tracking device in a rare book we suspected would be acquired by an AI company for training data, and following it around the country to its final destination.
That final destination was an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas, Nevada. Amazon employees who work at this location say all they do is receive massive shipments of printed books which they then cut the bindings off in order to scan the books more quickly. The printed book is destroyed in the process. The logo of the Amazon team that works at this warehouse, called VGT3, is a dinosaur, brandishing its teeth and with a book in its hands.
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