AI Firms Accused of Buying and Destroying Rare Books to Train Models

Booksellers and archivists are raising alarms that AI companies are quietly purchasing rare and out-of-print books in bulk, only to destroy them after scanning. Reports from Ars Technica and Reddit describe a pattern where firms acquire these irreplaceable texts, digitize them for training data, and then discard the physical copies, leading to fears of a modern-day Library of Alexandria loss. The practice has drawn sharp criticism, especially after a court ruling allowed one company to continue scanning copyrighted books for AI training on the condition that the originals be destroyed, resulting in the loss of numerous rare volumes. Booksellers are now resisting these bulk purchases, but the damage may already be significant, with experts warning that the destruction of these cultural artifacts is irreversible.