Booksellers in the United Kingdom received an order for approximately 1,000 volumes from an anonymous customer on the marketplace Biblio. The seller accepted an Apple AirTag placed inside one of the books to track the delivery destination. The package arrived at the VGT3 corner of the LAS8 Amazon facility in the north east of Las Vegas. An entrance sign displays a red tyrannosaurus with a book, its claws digging in as if interested in destruction rather than reading. Online discussions between Amazon workers confirmed that this specific location destructively scans large volumes of books for artificial intelligence training data.
This investigation confirms that companies purchase rare books specifically to scan their physical text rather than relying on digital copies. The process involves physically destroying the original items to extract the information needed to train large language models. It demonstrates that the demand for training data extends beyond standard digital sources into the physical book trade. The method leaves no trace of the original work once the scanning is complete.
- The target facility is located in Las Vegas.
- Approximately 1,000 books were involved in the shipment.
- The books were purchased for physical destruction.
