Hidden AirTag Exposes Amazon Destroying Rare Books in Bulk to Train AI

Investigative journalists from 404 Media hid an AirTag in a batch of rare books sold to Amazon, tracking the shipment to VGT3, an Amazon AI training facility in Las Vegas, where books are destroyed after their pages are scanned. Amazon confirmed it purchases books through commercial channels to develop and improve its products and services. The practice follows reports that Anthropic has spent tens of millions of dollars acquiring millions of books for AI training data.

Hidden AirTag Exposes Amazon Destroying Rare Books in Bulk to Train AI Reporters followed the tracking device to a warehouse in Las Vegas. by Tom Midlane https://novaramedia.com/contributor/tom-midlane/ 21 August 2026 Amazon has been caught buying and destroying rare books in bulk to train its AI models – after investigative journalists planted a tracking device in one of the books. The retail giant is the latest company to be exposed for the practice after 404 Media https://www.404media.co/we-tracked-a-shipment-of-rare-books-it-ended-at-an-amazon-ai-training-facility/ convinced a bookseller to hide an AirTag among a large batch of books that Amazon had ordered anonymously. The delivery was tracked to VGT3, an Amazon AI training facility in Las Vegas where books have their spines lopped off so the pages can be scanned – and are then thrown away. The door of the warehouse has a sign with a logo featuring a dinosaur that appears ready to devour a book. AI firms are buying up older books because they are guaranteed to be authored by humans – there is no risk they contain AI-generated content that might corrupt training models. Anthropic, the company behind Claude AI, has spent tens of millions of dollars acquiring millions of books to feed its demand for human-authored training material, the Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/01/27/anthropic-ai-scan-destroy-books/ reported earlier this year. Amazon workers are reportedly required to scan barcodes or ISBNs before scanning books, suggesting they are methodically working their way through all the world’s printed output. At one stage, staff were concerned that the warehouse might be shuttered if the flow of printed material ran dry, but the facility remains functional, Ars Technica reported. Amazon said in a statement: “Amazon purchases books through commercial channels to help develop and improve the products and services our customers use.” Tom Midlane is a freelance journalist.