- Many used bookstores in Canada report receiving unusually large orders and suspect these books are being scanned and then destroyed to train AI models.
- Concerns stem from a U.S. copyright lawsuit revealing that Anthropic spent millions of dollars purchasing physical books, cutting off their spines to quickly scan each page for training Claude, and then discarding the remains.
- A recent investigation by 404 Media also found that many shipments of books were sent to an Amazon facility in Las Vegas for “destructive scanning” to train large language models.
- Bookstores in Australia, Spain, Germany, and New Zealand have expressed concerns over similar phenomena.
- Printed books, especially those published before ChatGPT’s launch in 2022, are considered valuable because they contain human-written content untainted by AI-generated text.
- Sellers & Newel bookstore in Toronto reported receiving bulk requests for random book categories starting around June, which differ significantly from traditional orders.
- After reading about AI book scanning, the store decided to reject all bulk orders unless the buyer can prove a legitimate purpose.
- A person claiming to represent Innodata contacted booksellers to source large quantities of used books for AI data projects, but the company has not responded to CBC’s request for comment.
- Many booksellers noted that orders often focus on old technical, mathematical, physics, or medical books that have been in stock for years.
- Zoom Books, a business in British Columbia, is suspected by many booksellers on forums of being a buyer for the AI supply chain, though there is no direct evidence.
- Zoom Books denied selling books to Anthropic, stating it processes over 3 million books monthly, does not digitize them, and prioritizes reselling intact copies before recycling those unfit for circulation.
- The owner of the BMV Books chain stated they sold hundreds of books to Zoom Books in the past six months and only learned of the AI controversy after being contacted by CBC.
- Some orders were tracked to the PrepFort logistics center in Illinois, but the company refused to disclose customer information due to privacy reasons.
- Another bookstore owner in Vancouver reported a two-week period of receiving multiple orders for old non-fiction books priced between $10 and $80 each, suspecting LLCs were set up to hide the ultimate buyer.
- While many booksellers oppose the destruction of books for AI, some admit these orders help clear long-standing inventory.
📌 There is growing concern in the used book industry that physical books are being bought in bulk to be scanned and destroyed for AI training. Following the mention of Anthropic and certain supply chains in lawsuits and investigations, many bookstores have tightened restrictions on bulk sales. While there is no proof that every large order serves AI purposes, unusual transactions and the demand for pre-2022 publications are sparking debates over copyright, book preservation, and AI training data sources.
