How an AirTag planted by a reporter led to a secret Amazon site where old books are cut apart and scanned

Key Points:

• Amazon is reportedly cutting the spines off old books and scanning the pages at a Las Vegas facility, likely to train AI models on rare text not widely digitized, though the company has not confirmed this purpose.
• Investigative journalist Emanuel Maiberg of 404 Media discovered this by placing an Apple AirTag in a rare book ordered in bulk, tracking its journey to an Amazon warehouse known as LAS8 and a separate operation labeled VGT3, where books are cut and scanned.
• The bulk orders focus on books with serial numbers rather than the rarest pre-ISBN titles, suggesting a methodical approach to digitizing a wide range of published works, possibly to create valuable AI training data free from machine-generated text.
• This spine-cutting and scanning practice was legally upheld in a 2025 federal ruling allowing fair use for digitizing purchased print books, contrasting with illegal downloads from pirate sites that have led to costly settlements.
• The use of everyday tracking technology like AirTags highlights innovative journalistic methods to uncover secretive corporate activities, though Amazon may reveal different intentions for the project over time.