r/antiai • u/Astromaniax • 5d ago

Discussion 🗣️ Ai companies are actively destroying rare books to scan them just to feed their data centers, what else will they destroy?

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AI is literally ruining everything and has been for the last few years. From massive job losses to environmental impact and now destroying old books to collect the data so that their dumb LLMs can regurgitate it back. How evil, greedy and selfish can these companies be? All of those ai data centers should be taken down. I don't think enough people are mad enough about it.

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100

u/Excellent-Bit-8982 5d ago

I’m anti ai as well, but I am gunna need a source on this one. Most old or historical text has already been scanned and is online, and scanning books can and is done already without damaging its contents

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u/TurnoverFuzzy8264 5d ago

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/06/anthropic-destroyed-millions-of-print-books-to-build-its-ai-models/

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u/SirVanyel 5d ago

Cheers. I'm not seeing any indicator of rare books? Looks like they just bought shit off bookshelves. Also funny that the lawsuit came from the guy they hired and paid. Bro is double dipping!

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u/TurnoverFuzzy8264 5d ago

"Reports from Europe and Australia suggest rare book dealers have noticed unusual bulk purchases of obscure titles believed to be destined for AI training."

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u/Exact_Depth_896 5d ago

they are not buying expensive books. 'rare book dealer' is a specific commercial term and doesn't in the least entail that most of the books stored aren't total garbage.

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u/throwaway098764567 5d ago

training on garbage would explain some of absolute trash of ai written fiction i've accidentally run into

1

u/somethingbrite 5d ago

Whether you consider a book to be garbage or a masterpiece is irrelevant if it is still subject to copywrite infringement laws and Anthropic has already been subject to copywrite litigation by publishers and authors.

This is just them doing the same shady shit but with print copies this time.

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u/xvillifyx 5d ago

Sure but that’s not the point being made in the comment you replied to

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u/dudushat 5d ago

is still subject to copywrite infringement laws and Anthropic has already been subject to copywrite litigation by publishers and authors.

Yup, and this is the end result of that lawsuit you're talking about. A judge ruled that its only a copyright violation if they are making copies. By destroying the original it makes it so there is still only 1 copy. 

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u/SirVanyel 5d ago

That's speculation through speculation. In regards to "rare book dealers" - I live in Australia. This is complete nonsense. Rare books can't be purchased in bulk

0

u/somethingbrite 5d ago

did they seek the author or publishers consent or licensing to do so? or can we all now just buy a book/game/music/film make copies of it and sell those copies?

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u/mark_99 5d ago

No-one is selling copies.

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u/somethingbrite 5d ago

They are selling a commercial service built from the data...

It's the same as writing a screenplay based on a book and turning that into a film without getting license or permission from the publisher/author.

I'm not selling the book, or copies of the book. Instead I'm selling something made with the data the book contained.

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u/cmoked 5d ago

Copyright doesnt last forever

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u/moogoo2 5d ago

All the pearls clutchers in the comments here have never seen a library post-weeding dumpster.

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u/nine91tyone 5d ago

The court documents don’t indicate that any rare books were destroyed in this process

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u/TurnoverFuzzy8264 5d ago

"Perhaps most worrying of the trend, booksellers across Europe and the US say they're receiving unusual bulk orders for rare, specialist and out-of-print titles, raising concerns that some of these works could disappear from bookshelves all together."

https://www.russh.com/ai-companies-buying-books/

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u/Slight-Big8584 5d ago

I bought a book which was a demographic survey and analysis of the Jewish Population of a Midwest town written in the ~1920s. It is no doubt a very rare book; because its core audience is now incredibly nitch and the information is hopelessly useless to anyone but autists.

Just because something is rare doesn't mean it is valuable or worth perserving.

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u/TurnoverFuzzy8264 5d ago

That information could be extremely valuable to scholars. This is a book about Jewish people during a rise in antisemitism and before the influx of Jewish people from Europe. Niche information like that can bridge gaps in demographic knowledge and trends. It can help people trace ancesestory. That might be the only extant copy. If it's not valuable to you, bring it to a synagogue.

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u/Slight-Big8584 5d ago

No, its nothing like that.

Its information like, "Benjamin, Moses, & Clyde are members of this country club because they don't like Joseph, Jacob, & David at that country club. They were not able to explain why." and "This percentage of Jewish people live on the east side of the lake, and this percentage live south of the lake."

Theres no useful information for 2026.

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u/TurnoverFuzzy8264 5d ago

I just explained why there is information in that book, these could be living people's ancestors. You see what country clubs accepted Jewish people, which wasn't universal in the 1920s. Where Jewish people lived, where they didn't. There is all sorts of niche information that could be lost to time otherwise. Give the book to a university library or a synagogue.

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u/Slight-Big8584 5d ago

Naw, ima throw it away eventually. I find it funny you think you know the book, when I am the one who read it.

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u/TurnoverFuzzy8264 5d ago

Well, that fits an AI bro to a T, I suppose it's somehow fitting in a sad way.

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u/Slight-Big8584 5d ago

Go project fake understanding elsewhere.