Report: Amazon Training AI on Rare Books, Destroying Them After
The Spin
Establishment-critical narrative
Amazon's industrial-scale book destruction is a cultural catastrophe dressed up as innovation. Physical books — especially rare and out-of-print titles — are being obliterated to feed AI models that can't even sustain themselves on their own output, because AI-generated text degrades the very tools it trains. The entire scheme depends on anonymous middlemen and opacity precisely because the companies behind it know the public would never accept it.
Pro-establishment narrative
Buying and scanning physical books for AI training is fully legal under First Sale Doctrine, and a federal judge has already ruled it's fair use. Companies need physical books to ensure the AI models people use are infused with human creations, not just recycled AI-generated slop. While the backlash to books being destroyed is understandable, it's important to remember that these are consensual, private purchases and the authors are compensated.