AirTag Tracking Reveals Amazon Facility in Las Vegas Destroying Rare Books

An AirTag tracking device concealed inside a rare book by a journalistic team traced a shipment across the United States to an Amazon facility in Las Vegas. The investigation revealed that Amazon purchases large volumes of printed books, removes their covers, disassembles their bindings, and optically scans their pages — a process that concludes with the physical destruction of the original copies after their content is converted into data for training artificial intelligence models.

How the shipment trail uncovered the operation

According to a technical investigation published by U.S.-based outlet 404 Media, the AirTag was placed inside one volume within a large book order. Its signal was tracked continuously until the package arrived at an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas. Workers at the facility confirmed their responsibilities include receiving shipments, removing book bindings, and performing optical scanning. An internal team operating there, known as VGT3, uses a logo depicting a dinosaur holding a book in its teeth. Amazon stated it acquires books through commercial channels to improve its products.

Why older printed books are used for AI training

These older printed books hold value because they contain human-written text that was never published digitally and has not been contaminated by AI-generated content. While Amazon’s purchase of the physical copies is legally permissible, the practice of destroying rare books — which may be irreplaceable — remains contentious. The AirTag tracking definitively established the destination of that specific shipment, and worker testimony corroborated the workflow. However, the tracking alone does not quantify how many books have been destroyed or assess the cultural significance of individual titles — a key distinction between what the investigation confirmed and what still requires further verification.