How books are being scanned and destroyed to train artificial intelligence • FRANCE 24 English

Summary
This news report by France 24 investigates how tech and AI companies—specifically Amazon and Anthropic—source, scan, and destroy physical second-hand and rare books to train artificial intelligence models. The segment features interviews with second-hand booksellers in France, an investigative journalist who tracked books using GPS tags, and an AI industry expert explaining why AI labs are turning to undigitized physical literature.

What is shown

• [00:14] CBS News segment reporting that physical books are scanned to train AI and subsequently destroyed.
• [00:28] Inside Le Livre Vert, a second-hand bookseller warehouse in Bordeaux, France, where staff observed anomalous high-volume book orders.
• [00:53] E-commerce listings and automated ordering timestamps showing bulk purchases made every minute (e.g., 100 books at 04:40, 50 at 04:41, 27 at 04:42).
• [01:21] Order dashboard displaying the intermediary company name: Fulfillment Box / Zoom Books.
• [01:34] Insertion of a GPS tracker into the spine of a book by investigative outlet 404 Media.
• [01:42] Aerial satellite imagery and facility photos of the Amazon fulfillment center (VGT3) near Las Vegas, Nevada, featuring a dinosaur mascot eating a book.
• [01:54] Reddit forum posts from warehouse workers discussing scanning books at VGT3.
• [02:05] Video interview with Emanuel Maiberg, journalist at 404 Media.
• [02:23] Footage showing books having their spines sliced off with blades, loose pages fed into high-speed document scanners, and discarded shredded/cut pages dumped in trash bins.
• [03:11] Interview with Ari Kouts, AI manager at Wavestone, discussing the exhaustion of online text data.
• [03:44] Unsealed internal Anthropic legal document titled “Project Panama” (Owner: Tom Turvey, dated Apr 13, 2024), outlining efforts to destructively scan books.

Claims & numbers

• Amazon launch: Jeff Bezos launched Amazon a little over 30 years ago as “Earth’s biggest bookstore” (the narrator says).
• Volume and spend at Le Livre Vert: Nearly 1,200 books were ordered for a total of €20,000 by Canadian entity Zoom Books / Fulfillment Box (the narrator says).
• Order cadence: An automated buyer bought 100 books at 04:40 AM, 50 at 04:41 AM, and 27 at 04:42 AM (Vera DaCunha says).
• Amazon statement: An Amazon spokesperson stated to Inc.: “Amazon purchases books through commercial channels to help develop and improve the products and services our customers use.”
• Anthropic book destruction: Anthropic admitted in legal filings to having destructively scanned millions of books to train its models under “Project Panama” (the narrator says).
• Anthropic statement: An Anthropic spokesperson stated: “None of our data acquisition programs buy and destroy rare or antiquarian books.”
• US legal status: There is currently no US law prohibiting the destruction or destructive scanning of legally purchased physical books to train AI (the narrator says).

Notable quotes

• “A human couldn’t do that, it was definitely automated.” — Vera DaCunha [01:13]
• “All we do is scan books. It’s so cool.” — Amazon VGT3 warehouse worker post on Reddit [02:01]
• “Project Panama is our effort to destructively scan all the books in the world.” — Anthropic internal memo [03:54]

Assessment
This is a factual investigative broadcast report produced by France 24 incorporating real-world tracking, interviews, physical book-deconstruction footage, and unsealed court documents. All claims and demonstrations are supported by verifiable investigative reporting and published statements from the involved companies.

Described by gemini-3.8-flash on 2026-10-17 from the video’s audio and frames.