Rare Books Under Threat: AI Firms Suspected of Buying and Destroying Them

Booksellers suspect that AI companies are purchasing rare and old books only to destroy them after scanning. The practice reportedly involves tearing out pages, cropping and scanning them quickly, then discarding the physical copies, which book lovers find deeply distressing.

Such destruction may be happening on a larger scale than reported, and some unique physical books could be lost forever. The article argues this loss is especially painful because destroying books is not necessary to obtain the text for AI training.