Amazon Buys Rare Books by the Thousands

Amazon has been purchasing rare books in large quantities and destroying them after scanning their contents to train AI models, according to a report from 404 Media.

The publication tracked one shipment of around 1,000 titles that included an Apple AirTag, which led them to an Amazon facility in Las Vegas dedicated to scanning books.

Employees at the facility described a process where books are received, catalogued, and then have their bindings removed so pages can be scanned more efficiently.

The destructive scanning process allows companies like Amazon to digitize large quantities of text at a lower cost. The data is used to train AI models, which are increasingly sought after by companies for tasks such as natural language processing and content creation.