Amazon AirTag probe reveals AI book-scanning site

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

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 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 boo…

Amazon AirTag probe reveals AI book-scanning site

An AirTag tracked a bulk book shipment to an Amazon facility in Las Vegas, where staff cut spines and scan pages to train AI, contradicting an earlier denial.

AirTag Investigation Tracks Rare Book Shipment to Amazon Facility Scanning Books for AI Training

A $29 Apple AirTag hidden inside a rare book helped track a shipment to an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas, where employees take apart books and scan their pages for AI training data.This finding contradicts an earlier Amazon statement denying that it destroyed books during scanning. Reporter Emanuel Maiberg placed the AirTag in one book from an order of about 1,000 volumes purchased through Biblio, a marketplace that keeps buyers anonymous.Amazon…

A Bookseller Hid an Airtag in a Shipment of 1,000 Rare Books and Tracked It to an Amazon Warehouse Where Workers Strip the Spines Off and Scan Them to Death

A judge already ruled this is legal. In the lawsuit that first exposed the practice, a court found that Anthropic cutting the pages out of millions of books, scanning them, and disposing of the originals was “transformative” and didn’t violate copyright, because the physical texts were being turned into digital ones. The AirTag trick came out of an investigation by 404 Media. A bookseller grew suspicious that a 1,000-book order placed anonymousl…