AI Labs Slice and Shred Physical Books for Training, Ruled as Fair Use
Euphoric_Incident_18 · reddit · 2026-07-31
To avoid model collapse from training on synthetic "AI slop", AI labs have started bulk-buying physical books published before 2022, detaching their spines for high-speed scanning, and shredding the paper waste.
Legal and Ethical Controversies:
- Fair Use Ruling: In 2025, federal judge William Alsup ruled that scanning legally purchased physical books qualifies as "transformative fair use". However, downloading data from pirated shadow libraries (like Books3) is not protected.
- Market Impact: Booksellers are seeing out-of-print or obscure titles disappear weekly. Concerns are mounting that the demand for physical print media may lead to permanent depletions of desirable books.
This practice of destroying physical books to obtain "100% human-written" data has sparked widespread debate over whether AI training is crossing ethical boundaries.
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