Amazon joins other tech giants in gobbling up books to train AI, report finds

Amazon is reportedly buying massive quantities of rare books, scanning their pages to train its AI models and destroying the tomes in the process — joining Anthropic, Meta and other tech giants in operating massive book scan-and-destroy operations.The goal, according to a report by news site 404 Media, is to train AI on well-written texts as opposed to low-quality internet slop, which AI models have already for the most part devoured.Slicing machines sever the spines of the books to speed up the process and cut costs, according to reports that have detailed operations by Amazon and others playing out in non-descript warehouses.        404 Media said it uncovered Amazon’s book-buying operation by hiding a tracking device in a rare volume that it suspected an AI firm would purchase.

Its movements were traced across states to its final destination – an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas.“Amazon purchases books through commercial channels to help develop and improve the products and services our customers use,” an Amazon spokesperson said.The bookseller – which 404 Media kept anonymous – agreed to slip an Apple AirTag provided by the publication into a huge order the vendor received in July for around 1,000 works through a book marketplace.Warehouse workers at the Las Vegas location said their days are spent taking in heaping shipments of printed books and preparing them for AI scanning.The process – also detailed in a January Washington Post article on Anthropic and other AI labs’ own book-scanning efforts – involves automated machines that chop the bindings off the orphaned volumes. The mascot of the Amazon team that works at the warehouse, named VGT3, is a Tyrannosaurus rex showing its chompers while holding a book, according to 404 Media.   “I work at VGT3 here in Vegas, and all we do is scan books,” one Amazon employee wrote on an online forum for the company’s workers.

“Some are assigned to cut books, and others go to receive w...