The facts about AI companies destroying books

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The facts about AI companies destroying books. (2026, August 19). CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/9.7311779?cmp=rss

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

CBC News · collected 2026-08-19

Quick Summary

Tech company Anthropic acquired and "destructively scanned" millions of physical books, including those from the New York Public Library and several private collectors, to use as data for its AI chatbot Claude. The process involves scanning the books in a way that makes them unusable again. It is reported that the books were bought by Anthropic at a cost estimated to be around $15 million.

Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-08-19, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

A recent surge in secondhand book sales has left independent booksellers puzzled, with many reporting unusual bulk orders from unknown buyers. In a typical week, Stuart Manley from Barter Books in Northumberland would sell 2-3 thousand books, but recently received an order that equaled this amount in a single transaction. Booksellers worldwide have reported similar mega orders, raising suspicions that the books are not being bought for readers, but rather to train AI software, which has been fueled by a US court ruling in 2025 allowing the use of purchased books for AI training without violating copyright law. The company Anthropic has been linked to this phenomenon, as it was revealed that they bought millions of physical books to train their AI chatbot Claude**.

Written for “AI and the Book Market” on 2026-10-16, grounded in this article and the 1 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 AI and the Book Market

Technology · 2 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

Compared with similar articles

This article reads centre and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.

Secondhand book sales are booming. Is it because of AI? same event · 100%

BBC News

⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 8% hedged 3 of 38 📰 publisher trust 72

“Both articles mention a large number of secondhand books being purchased and possibly 'destroyed' or 'scanned' for AI training, with Anthropic's purchase mentioned explicitly in Article B”

How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims