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\nAI companies like Anthropic are buying and destroying millions of books \u2014 many of them rare, first-edition copies or hard-to-find, out-of-print editions \u2014 to feed chatbots, the Washington Post reported earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Some booksellers say they went from selling about 20 books\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/PpKevAX55Q<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) July 30, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The world\u2019s biggest AI companies are buying antique books en masse so they can be scanned to train their large language models (LLMs) before being destroyed. <\/p>\n
Anthropic, the company behind Claude AI, has spent tens of millions of dollars acquiring millions of books to feed its demand for human-authored training material.<\/p>\n
\u201cProject Panama is our effort to destructively scan all the books in the world,\u201d an internal planning document said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want it to be known that we are working on this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAI companies are anonymously buying and destroying millions of books through middleman services https:\/\/t.co\/qJPc3TFWZt<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 PC Gamer (@pcgamer) July 28, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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\nThere are books going into these shredders that exist nowhere else on Earth. Booksellers are watching last-surviving copies get bulk-ordered by anonymous buyers, spine-sliced by hydraulic machines, and pulped.<\/p>\n
And here’s the part that should make your skin crawl. The destruction\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/FvOlTxcTM7<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Aakash Gupta (@aakashgupta) July 30, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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Sources:<\/b> 1<\/a> | 2<\/a> | 3<\/a><\/p>\n
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