AI companies are allegedly buying rare books, scanning them, and pulping the originals
eyishazyer · x · 2026-07-29
The post argues that some AI companies are buying large volumes of used and rare books, scanning them for training data, and then pulping the originals.
Its core concern is not just digitization, but the irreversible loss of physical books:
- Scanned books allegedly disappear from the physical world
- Human knowledge survives only as training data inside systems people cannot browse, own, or resell
- The post frames this as a cultural loss, not just a data-collection shortcut
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