AI training consumes human civilization: Anthropic bought millions of physical books for training data

Graham_dePenros · x · 2026-07-29

The author uses four classic books (Hobbes' Leviathan, Orwell's Animal Farm, Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye) to critique AI companies' practice of buying millions of physical books, cutting bindings, scanning pages, and discarding originals. Anthropic alone bought millions of books. The author argues that civilization's intellectual inheritance becomes private training data, with access sold back token by token. Models cannot replace human imagination, conscience, or creativity. Physical books need no subscription, generate no telemetry, and cannot be remotely altered. The author urges readers to buy, hold, read, keep, and pass on physical books.

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AI training consumes human civilization: Anthropic bought millions of physical books for training data

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