The article warns that AI companies are purchasing physical books in bulk to use as raw material (likely for energy or disposal), urging the preservation community to digitize rare and out-of-print books before they are destroyed. It highlights a growing concern that the demand from AI training data collection is leading to the physical destruction of irreplaceable literary works.
Background
AI companies have increasingly turned to acquiring large volumes of physical books for digitization and data processing, raising concerns about the fate of rare and out-of-print works in the physical world.
- Source
- Hacker News (RSS)
- Published
- Aug 21, 2026 at 10:37 AM
- Score
- 6.0 / 10