AirTag Trace Unearths Amazon’s Hidden Book Scanning for AI Training
TL;DR Summary
A 404 Media investigation tracked a shipment of a scarce, pre-ISBN book to Amazon’s LAS8 facility in Las Vegas and uncovered a separate operation, VGT3, where workers cut spines and scan pages—likely to train AI models—tracked by an AirTag inserted into the book. Amazon says it buys books to develop its products, but hasn’t confirmed the use, and the piece places the finding in a broader history of investigative tracking and a 2025 fair-use ruling on digitizing bound volumes.
- How an AirTag planted by a reporter led to a secret Amazon site where old books are cut apart and scanned GeekWire
- AI Companies Are Buying—And Destroying—Antique Books. Here’s Why. Forbes
- Hidden Airtag reveals Amazon is trashing rare books to train AI Ars Technica
- Secondhand book sales are booming. Is it because of AI? BBC
- Amazon Is Buying Up Older Books and Destroying Them After Scanning. The Orders Go Back to 2024 inc.com
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