Amazon Scans and Destroys Used Books for AI Training, AirTag Tracing Shipment to 1 Facility
Updated
Updated · 9to5Mac · Aug 17
Amazon Scans and Destroys Used Books for AI Training, AirTag Tracing Shipment to 1 Facility
3 articles · Updated · 9to5Mac · Aug 17
Summary
A hidden AirTag in a rare-book shipment led investigators to an Amazon facility where employees said books are scanned for AI training and then destroyed.
Booksellers had flagged unusual bulk orders of unrelated used titles; staff described slicing off bindings to speed high-volume scanning before the physical books are discarded.
Used books are especially prized because post-2022 titles may already contain AI-written or AI-edited text, making older volumes cleaner training data.
The finding sharpens criticism that authors are neither asked for consent nor paid, even as a 2025 U.S. ruling treated such copying as transformative use while UK law would likely view it as illegal.