The modern book burners: The tech giants buying thousands of second-hand books – so they can tear off their spines, scan their precious contents… then destroy them: FRED KELLY
The article reports that second-hand bookshops in Britain have received unusually large orders for obscure and specialist titles, which sellers believe may be linked to technology companies gathering material for artificial-intelligence training. It says the practice raises concerns about the destruction of potentially rare books, copyright and the use of authors’ work without permission, although the article presents these concerns largely through critics of the companies involved.
Court documents cited by the article state that AI company Anthropic bought millions of print books as part of a 2024 initiative called “Project Panama”, removed their bindings, scanned their pages and discarded the physical copies. The article says the books were sourced in bulk, including from independent dealers, and quotes the Publishers Association as arguing that unlicensed use of books and journals harms writers and creative industries.
- AI firms are reportedly buying and destroying books to create training data.
- Anthropic documents reportedly describe scanning millions of purchased print books.
- Critics cite risks to rare books, copyright and authors’ incomes.