Bookseller says the viral “AI companies buying rare books” story overstates the case
rkulidzan · x · 2026-07-28
- A second-generation bookseller says the viral story about AI companies buying up “rare books” doesn’t hold up in practice.
- His store saw a bizarre 70-book order that briefly forced them to pause online sales, but when he dug into the orders, most of the books were obscure, out-of-print items like old manuals rather than precious collector’s books.
- He argues the viral reports mix together real facts — ISBNdb’s AI-book sourcing pitch, Anthropic’s book-scanning litigation, and strange bulk orders — but overstate how much truly rare inventory is being sucked into the pipeline.
More from Companies & People
- Anthropic and Dario Amodei are said to have drained AI’s excitement and joy — DeryaTR_ · 2026-07-28
- Sakana AI hosts deep learning researcher building a new Yale lab — kaixhin · 2026-07-28
- OpenCode team plans first Buenos Aires meetup from Sept. 24–28 — yenkel · 2026-07-28
- As AI gets stronger, leadership matters more, not less — lovetoknow_ · 2026-07-28
- AI automation is already cutting thousands of customer service jobs — RebeccaBellan · 2026-07-28
- AI Tinkerers Seattle plans a summer bash with demos, food, and sponsors — LightningAI · 2026-07-28