Artificial intelligence companies are buying enormous quantities of physical books to obtain high-quality training material for large language models, with court records showing that Anthropic‘s secretive “Project Panama” acquired millions of books, removed their bindings, scanned the pages, and discarded or recycled the originals. The practice has alarmed booksellers and preservation advocates as unusual bulk orders increasingly target older, obscure, and out-of-print works—especially books published before the explosion of AI-generated content. Although Anthropic maintains that its acquisition programs do not purchase and destroy rare or antiquarian books, sellers say the secrecy surrounding buyers makes it difficult to determine what is disappearing from circulation. The controversy is expanding beyond copyright questions into concerns about cultural preservation, market concentration, transparency, and whether technology companies should be permitted to convert privately purchased physical collections into proprietary digital assets while permanently eliminating the source material.
Key Takeaways
- Court records revealed that Anthropic purchased millions of physical books under “Project Panama,” removed their bindings, digitally scanned their pages for AI training, and disposed of the originals; a federal judge subsequently ruled that transformative use of lawfully purchased books for training could qualify as fair use.
- Booksellers have reported extraordinary bulk purchases of older and obscure books, sometimes involving intermediaries or unidentified ultimate buyers, raising concerns that potentially significant works could disappear before preservation experts can determine their historical or cultural value.
- The dispute is broadening beyond copyright: consumer and public-interest organizations have asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether mass acquisition, digitization, and destruction of books could reduce public access, disadvantage smaller AI competitors, and concentrate valuable training resources in the hands of dominant technology companies.
In-Depth
Artificial intelligence companies are turning the used-book market into a front in the battle over technology, ownership, and cultural preservation. Court records revealed that Anthropic’s “Project Panama” purchased millions of physical books, removed their bindings, scanned their pages for AI training, and discarded or recycled the originals. Anthropic has said its acquisition programs do not buy and destroy rare or antiquarian books, yet booksellers report unusual bulk orders involving older, obscure, and out-of-print works.
The practice exposes a gap between what may be legally permissible and what constitutes responsible stewardship. A federal judge found that converting lawfully purchased books into training data could constitute transformative fair use. But legality does not determine whether private companies should systematically destroy physical works after extracting their informational value. Books are not merely containers of words. Older editions can possess historical and cultural significance that disappears when the physical object is destroyed.
The controversy has moved beyond copyright. Civil-society groups have asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether mass purchasing and destruction could harm competition by removing source material from circulation and concentrating valuable training data inside powerful technology companies. Booksellers face an uncomfortable incentive: bulk AI buyers generate sales while potentially eliminating inventory permanently.
AI development need not require indifference toward preservation. Companies seeking training material can scan books nondestructively, preserve scarce copies, disclose acquisition practices, and distinguish disposable mass-market inventory from culturally significant works. Technological progress should expand access to human knowledge, not quietly diminish the physical record from which that knowledge came.
Sources
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2026/08/17/ai-companies-are-buying-and-destroying-antique-books-heres-why/
- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ftc-ai-companies-destroying-books/
- https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/hidden-airtag-reveals-amazon-is-trashing-rare-books-to-train-ai/
- https://www.demandprogresseducationfund.org/ftc-must-investigate-ai-book-burning
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/01/27/anthropic-ai-scan-destroy-books/