AI companies are bulk-buying rare books, scanning them, and shredding the originals

AI companies are shredding rare books

AI companies are anonymously bulk-buying rare books through ISBNdb, scanning them with high-speed machines that cut off the spines, then shredding the originals. Pre-2022 books command a premium because they contain no AI-generated text. A federal judge ruled the practice is fair use since destroying the original means only one copy exists at a time. Anthropic hired the former head of Google Books partnerships to obtain 'all the books in the world.' 404 Media reports that rare books with almost no surviving copies are being fed into this pipeline. ISBNdb's site says 'AI company destroys two million books' is not a sympathetic headline, yet they built a business around it, offering NDAs and coaching clients to call it 'digital preservation.'

Why it matters: Four hard facts from the 404 Media investigation: ISBNdb anonymized bulk buying, spine-cutting scanners, fair-use ruling, Anthropic's Google Books hire. HKR all hit, but the source is a social media repost, not the original report, and the event doesn't involve a model or prod...