A follow up to the Amazon destroying books for AI story, why a bunch of names keep appearing in AI-generated papers, and ICE's latest spending spree.
Page A7From§Eachthe coffee break edition — 2 September 2026
Amazon worker destroys books for AI as N.Y.C. bans AI in schools
The receipts lay out the sequence: Amazon workers are now tasked with destroying books for AI, and New York City bans AI from elementary and middle schools. The cycle is clear—technology gets in the door, then gets banned from the classroom, while the books get trashed to feed the machine. The official line calls it progress, but the receipts call it demolition. The winners are the algorithms, who get the data, and the losers are the students, who get the ban. If you want to see who comes out ahead, check the syllabus: the books are gone, the AI is out, and the receipts are the only thing left standing. The stakes are simple: the algorithm wins, the students lose, and the syllabus gets rewritten to fit the ban. That's not modernization, hon, that's a demolition derby with a press pass.
“AI gets a new job destroying books, and New York bans it from schools. That's not progress, that's a demolition derby with a syllabus. The receipts say who wins: the algorithm, not the students.”
“AI is rapidly transforming society, and sometimes that means tough choices for education and labor. Banning AI from schools is a precaution, and destroying books for AI is just modernization. It's not as bad as it sounds, unless you think it is, but it's not.”
The receipts
A new policy to be announced by the Department of Education bars younger students from using artificial intelligence, but stops short of a moratorium.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.