Amazon Destroying Rare Books to Feed AI Training Pipeline, Tracking Device Reveals

A 404 Media investigation using a hidden tracking device inside a rare book traced it to an Amazon facility in Las Vegas, where spines are cut off rare books for high-throughput digitization before the physical copies are destroyed. Amazon stated it "purchases books through commercial channels to improve the products and services customers use." Pre-2022 texts are prized for AI training because they contain no LLM-generated content.