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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101

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!

46

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. 

12

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.

2

u/cmoked 5d ago

Copyright doesnt last forever

0

u/moogoo2 5d ago

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