this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2026
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AI labs buy, scan, shred millions of rare books (www.news.com.au)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Artificial intelligence labs are in a new arms race to buy up millions of rare books, slicing them open, scanning the pages and pulping the remains — sparking concerns that the last remaining copies of out-of-print texts are being destroyed on an industrial scale.

ISBNdb notes that “print books from the pre-LLM era are structurally guaranteed to be free of this contamination”.

“Millions of the most valuable books have never been digitised. They exist only in physical form, scattered across library shelves, used bookstores, and out-of-print catalogues. We get them to you at scale.”

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[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So they can gatekeep knowledge? Got it.

[–] Funwayguy@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That would imply preserving the original. No, they are having their AIs revise history and its literature to whatever they deem 'acceptable' in their new world order, hence the rampant book banning spree they've been on as of late.

[–] bufalo1973@piefed.social 1 points 15 hours ago

"Who controls the past, controls the future"