AI companies destroy physical books – let's scan rare books before it's too late
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
AI companies are buying, scanning, and destroying physical books to train models.
Anthropic's 'Project Panama,' exposed in a $1.5 billion settlement, spent tens of millions purchasing millions of paper books, scanning them for Claude training, then destroying them. AI companies do this to prevent competitor use of scans, avoid legal risks, and cut costs. Anna's Archive seeks volunteers worldwide to scan and upload books, especially rare ones, before publishers or AI companies lock knowledge away permanently.
What commenters are saying
Commenters split into two camps: those arguing destruction of physical books permanently locks knowledge away from the public, and those arguing the problem is overstated-books are mass-produced, and rare/valuable books are likely not being targeted. A key counter-claim: copyright law, not company choice, forces destruction to avoid lawsuits, as Google Books faced. Others counter that companies could simply not scan or could use freely available copies instead of destroying unique copies.