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Amazon buys and destroys books after scanning for AI training

An investigation revealed that Amazon is purchasing large quantities of older books, only to scan them and subsequently destroy the physical copies. This practice, which has been ongoing since at least 2024, involves sending these books to an Amazon facility, reportedly for AI training purposes. The discovery was made by tracking a shipment of rare books, which led to an Amazon warehouse where the books were processed and destroyed. AI

IMPACT This practice highlights potential data sourcing methods for AI training, raising questions about content preservation and AI development.

RANK_REASON The cluster describes a specific operational practice by a company that is not a core AI release, research, or significant industry event.

Read on Mastodon — fosstodon.org →

AI-generated summary · Google Gemini · from 2 sources. How we write summaries →

Amazon buys and destroys books after scanning for AI training

How we ranked this

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0 / 100
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Newsworthiness bucket
Tool
The cluster describes a specific operational practice by a company that is not a core AI release, research, or significant industry event.
Source corroboration
2 independent sources
Multiple independent publishers reporting the same story raises confidence that it's real and newsworthy.
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other
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AI-industry relevance
Standard
On-topic for AI-industry coverage; kept in the public index.
Story freshness
39 days old
Aged out of breaking-news scoring windows; ranking reflects the durable signal from the full source set.

Full methodology in our editorial standards.

COVERAGE [2]

  1. Mastodon — fosstodon.org TIER_1 English(EN) · [email protected] ·

    "We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys boo

    "We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books." https://www. 404media.co/we-tracked-a-shipm ent-of-rare-books-it-ended-at-an-amazon-ai-training-facility/ # AI # LL…

  2. Mastodon — fosstodon.org TIER_1 English(EN) · [email protected] ·

    Amazon Is Buying Up Older Books and Destroying Them After Scanning. The Orders Go Back to 2024 A new investigation traced a roughly 1,000-book order to an Amazo

    Amazon Is Buying Up Older Books and Destroying Them After Scanning. The Orders Go Back to 2024 A new investigation traced a roughly 1,000-book order to an Amazon scanning operation. Inc. found unusual shipments were reaching the same Las Vegas warehouse back in 2024. https://www.…