Destroying Rare Books to Train Their AI Models
Everybody’s talking about these AI data centers popping up everywhere, but nobody’s talking about these AI companies buying up old and rare books and then destroy them. That’s right. AI companies are bulk buying rare books and scanning them through high-speed machines in order to train their AI models. In doing so, they take the spine of the books off, and then destroy them when they’re done.
The Fear and Concerns of AI Companies Buying, Scanning, Destroying Rare Books
Booksellers across the world are raising concerns about this because when all of these obscure and rare books are being bought up by these AI companies, they fear there won’t be any copies left. Makes you wonder if this is really about training their AI models or if this is about being able to control the information and getting rid of anything that might contradict what they say is true.
Burning Books and Destroying of Historical Texts is Nothing New
This has been going on throughout history. The Qin Dynasty in China from 213 to 210 BC. The destruction of the Library of Alexandria. Even more recently in Nazi Germany. So while yes, these AI data centers are a concern, we need to be paying attention to our rare books and the heads of these AI companies that are buying these up to train their AI models. How are they going to interpret the information?
Washington Post – Inside an AI start-up’s plan to scan and dispose of millions of books
NL Times – Rare book dealers fear tech firms are destroying obscure editions to train AI models
