On August 17, 2026, 404 Media reported that it tracked a shipment of rare books to an Amazon facility in Las Vegas where the company scans and destroys them for AI training. The facility reportedly spends all day cutting spines off and scanning books, acquiring inventory through bulk purchases.
No BS check run yet — press ⚖ to extract this story's claims and verify them against independent sources.
We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.
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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.
Super interesting follow up to 404media's coverage about Amazon scanning and destroying books. They talk about the definition of rare, not as culturally significant necessarily but books on nice topics, vanity publishing like autobiographies, or a manual for defunct piece of machinery. time below: YouTube video by 404 Media
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A shipment of rare books ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility https:// simonwillison.net/2026/Aug/17/ we-tracked-a-shipment-of-rare-books-it-ended-at-an-amazon-ai-tra/
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility https://www. 404media.co/we-tracked-a-shipm ent-of-rare-books-it-ended-at-an-amazon-ai-training-facility/?ref=daily-stories-newsletter
Amazon buying and destroying rare books to train AI; a bunch of wild AI use in the courts; and Meta's new patent for its AI smart glasses.
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Amazon, which started off selling books, is destroying rare texts to train AI | TechCrunch https:// techcrunch.com/2026/08/17/amaz on-once-an-online-bookseller-is-destroying-rare-books-to-train-ai-models/
youtube.com/shorts/8-p6v... YouTube video by 404 Media
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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 https://www.booksns.com/223043/ Secret tracking device placed in rare book ends up in Amazon processing facility — destroying books to train … Secret tracking device placed in rare book ends up in Amazon processing facility — destroying books to t
youtube.com/watch?v=_sf2... Save OUR BOOKS!!!! 💔 📚 🤬🤬🤬📚📚📖 YouTube video by 404 Media