Amazon’s Las Vegas Warehouse Reportedly Cuts Up Books for AI Training Data

Amazon’s VGT3 warehouse in Las Vegas is reportedly destructively scanning books for AI training data, using a workflow that cuts off bindings, scans loose pages and discards them in mixed piles. The reported result is a digital copy of the text and a physical book that cannot be reassembled.

The account began with a shipment of rare books. 404 Media said it placed a tracking device in books a seller suspected were being bought by an anonymous AI company, then followed the shipment across the country to VGT3. The publication also found online accounts from people who said they worked there and described receiving books, cutting their spines and scanning the separate pages.

From bound book to loose sheets

An anonymous VGT3 employee interviewed by 404 Media described books arriving in boxes or bulk containers before workers moved them toward cutting stations. At each station, an operator slides a book into a guarded machine, removes their hands and activates a blade that removes the spine. The separated pages are then fed through high-speed scanners and later thrown into large cardboard containers, the employee said.

The employee said the incoming material covered far more than recent commercial titles: new and used books, items apparently liquidated from libraries, books from London and the University of London, and volumes in German, Russian and Japanese. They also recalled documents presented to Parliament. Those descriptions point to a broad intake stream, though they do not establish the rarity, ownership history or rights status of individual books.

The employee said workers were initially told the project was for Kindles, but later concluded it was for AI training. 404 Media identifies VGT3 as an AI-training-data operation. It does not identify a downstream model or establish whether Amazon was collecting the scans for itself or another company—an important unanswered question about who ultimately uses the material.