Investigations report Amazon facilities in Las Vegas scanning and destroying rare books for AI model training
Incident ● Confirmed 74% confidence first seen
Multiple outlets describe investigations that tracked rare-book shipments to an Amazon facility in Las Vegas (including the VGT3 site) where books are allegedly torn apart and scanned for AI training data. Coverage also references a 2025 US copyright ruling related to using secondhand books to train Anthropic’s AI, and reports booksellers’ concerns about whether rare titles are being permanently destroyed beyond previously documented amounts.
404 Media
Amazon
Anthropic
Claude
Airtag
Amazon (VGT3, Las Vegas)
Amazon VGT3
Apple AirTag
Biblio
Facility VGT3 (Las Vegas)
Las Vegas
T. rex book-devouring logo
United Kingdom
United States
VGT3 warehouse
Source coverage
Booksellers suspect AI firms are buying and then destroying rare books
Ars Technica
independent
Secondhand book sales are booming. Is it because of AI?
BBC News
independent
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility
404 Media
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility
Simon Willison’s Weblog
industry analysis
Amazon, once an online bookseller, is destroying rare books to train AI models
TechCrunch
independent
Hidden Airtag reveals Amazon is trashing rare books to train AI
Ars Technica
independent