The 404 report has drawn wide attention as Amazon is buying massive book lots, scanning them for AI training, and destroying the originals. An A404 Media investigation followed a rare title through the country, tracking it to a Las Vegas, Nevada warehouse where Amazon employees cut bindings, scan pages, and discard the book.

Employees at the warehouse, part of the VGT3 team, say the process is designed for speed: receive shipments, strip bindings, scan quickly, and destroy the physical copy. The AI companies care only for the text, not the historical, monetary or sentimental value that a bookseller notes.

In stark contrast,יפור the Internet Archive, founded by Brewster Kahle in 1996, digitizes books one page at a time, preserving both content and physical integrity. The Archive rejects the destructive method popularized by Google Books in 2004, which cut spines to enable rapid automated processing.

The choice between speed and preservation reflects a broader ethical debate over how we treat cultural heritage in the era of AI.