this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2026
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AI labs buy, scan, shred millions of rare books (www.news.com.au)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Artificial intelligence labs are in a new arms race to buy up millions of rare books, slicing them open, scanning the pages and pulping the remains — sparking concerns that the last remaining copies of out-of-print texts are being destroyed on an industrial scale.

ISBNdb notes that “print books from the pre-LLM era are structurally guaranteed to be free of this contamination”.

“Millions of the most valuable books have never been digitised. They exist only in physical form, scattered across library shelves, used bookstores, and out-of-print catalogues. We get them to you at scale.”

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[–] redwattlebird@thelemmy.club 16 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

That's absolutely disgusting. At this rate, governments should really be stepping in and stopping all this.

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 2 weeks ago

The whole point of post-enlightenment government is to serve the public good. But then it gets captured by capitalist interests (as Karl Marx explains in Das Kapital) at which point the government serves capital.

[–] Willy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

According to the article, they are doing this to comply with copyright.

[–] demonsword@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

they are doing this to maliciously comply with copyright

[–] Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

Exactly, they don't comply with any other law that might inconvenience them.

[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Issue is, the AI accelerationist cult has planned out every scenario, and they have a very good plan to amaze politicians. That's why the bubble haven't burst yet.