Amazon, which started off selling books, is destroying rare texts to train AI

Amazon is reportedly acquiring rare books, removing their spines, and scanning them for AI training, as detailed by 404 Media. A tracking device placed in a rare book confirmed its arrival at Amazon's VGT3 facility in Las Vegas. Amazon stated it "purchases books through commercial channels to improve the products and services customers use." These rare texts are highly valued for AI training, particularly because they predate 2022, ensuring they are not AI-generated and thus mitigating the risk of "model collapse" in large language models.