Booksellers fear that AI companies may be buying and destroying rare or fragile books to digitise them cheaply for model training. The concern matters because some physical copies could be irreplaceable, while less destructive scanning methods exist but are slower and more expensive.

The article contrasts destructive scanning with Google’s non-destructive technology and the Internet Archive’s careful manual approach. Internet Archive scanner Eliza Zhang uses clean hands, a foot-pedal-operated glass plate and quality checks to preserve delicate materials; by 2021, she had scanned more than 3 million pages, 14,000 fold-outs and 18,000 items.