AirTag Tracks Rare Books to Amazon AI Operation

A stack of rare books led 404 Media straight to an Amazon operation that scans—and destroys—such works for its AI training. Reporter Emanuel Maiberg writes that his outlet slipped an Apple AirTag into an obscure title included in a 1,000-book bulk order placed through marketplace site Biblio—part of a spike in odd, high-volume purchases booksellers suspected were tied to artificial intelligence training. The tag's journey hopped from California to Wisconsin and Colorado before settling at an Amazon complex in Las Vegas, at a warehouse called LAS8.

There, Maiberg reports, the shipment appears to feed a little-known operation inside the building: a unit labeled VGT3, whose dinosaur-with-a-book logo is painted on the doors. Amazon workers say their job is to slice off bindings and scan books all day, destroying the physical copies in the process. Amazon confirms it buys books "to help develop and improve" its products and services but doesn't address questions about destruction or scale. Read the full investigative story.