Amazon is destroying rare books to train its AI

Reporters tracked down a batch of books sent to an Amazon facility. They hid an AirTag inside the packages to see what happened next. The books were scanned to feed data into AI models and never left the building.

Once the scanning process finished, the books were sent to a recycling center to be destroyed. This means these rare copies are gone forever. Amazon is essentially erasing historical texts to build its new technology.

This practice raises questions about how big companies treat physical media. Turning irreplaceable books into scrap paper for AI is a controversial way to improve software. People are now calling for more transparency regarding how these companies source their information.