Amazon Joins Tech Giants in Book Scanning Operation

Amazon has joined other tech giants in purchasing rare books to train its AI models. The company is scanning the pages of the books and destroying them in the process, according to a report by 404 Media.

The goal is to train AI on well-written texts as opposed to low-quality internet content, which AI models have largely devoured already.

Amazon purchases books through commercial channels to help develop and improve its products and services, an Amazon spokesperson said in response to the report.

The process involves automated machines that chop the bindings off the orphaned volumes, a step also detailed in a January Washington Post article on Anthropic and other AI labs' book-scanning efforts.

Some booksellers reported huge spikes in sales over the past year, suspecting they were driven by AI companies seeking to get hold of new training data, according to 404 Media.