An investigation by 404 Media revealed that Amazon is purchasing large quantities of physical books, including rare ones, scanning their content for AI training data, and then destroying them. By placing a tracking device in a large book order purchased through the marketplace Biblio, the publication traced the shipment to an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas, Nevada, known as VGT3.
Employees at the facility reportedly confirmed their work consists of receiving book shipments, cutting off the bindings to scan them more quickly, and then destroying the physical copies. An Amazon spokesperson stated that the company "purchases books through commercial channels to help develop and improve the products and services our customers use." This practice highlights the aggressive and controversial methods some tech companies are using to acquire high-quality training data, free from AI-generated content, for their language models.