AI Companies Are Buying and Destroying Used Books
Summary
The Journal investigates a surge in bulk used book orders from AI companies, revealed through court filings and a bookseller’s covert tracking experiment. The episode details how firms like Anthropic are purchasing physical books to scan and destroy for model training, a practice deemed legal because it removes copies from the market. Host Jessica Mendoza discusses the ethical dilemma facing sellers, who face increased revenue but moral conflict over facilitating the destruction of rare texts. The report explores the tension between AI’s data hunger and the preservation of unique literary a…
Topics discussed
Mystery bulk orders of obscure used books
Show introduction and host welcome
Sponsor segments: Credit Karma and Indeed
Booksellers discuss the surge in sales
Bookseller installs GPS trackers in books
Tracking reveals books sent to AI warehouses
Sponsor segment: United Airlines and Air New Zealand
Anthropic lawsuit reveals Project Panama
How AI companies scan and destroy books
Legal loophole: destruction makes scanning legal
Public backlash and comparison to publisher waste
Booksellers' moral dilemma and economic reality
Impact on the used book industry and book culture
Outro and sponsor segments: Smartly and Amex
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