Overview
- A 404 Media investigation using an Apple AirTag tracked a roughly 1,000‑book shipment to Amazon’s VGT3 operation in Las Vegas, a result confirmed by multiple outlets this week.
- Employees and forum posts reviewed by reporters say VGT3 staff remove bindings, scan pages and discard the physical books after digitization.
- Amazon told reporters it buys books through commercial channels to develop products but declined to explicitly confirm that the scanned texts are used to train its AI models.
- The practice follows earlier industry examples and court decisions: a 2025 ruling found destructive scanning of lawfully bought books can qualify as fair use and Anthropic later settled for about $1.5 billion over pirated book use.
- Booksellers and preservation advocates warn that large, anonymous ISBN‑driven orders threaten unique physical copies, and the coverage is intensifying calls for clearer disclosure, non‑destructive scanning standards and possible regulatory or industry action.