Story thread · 2 reports / 1 sources

AI companies understand the value of owning books. Do we?

thenationalnews.com · 11h · first reportShare

Every time I move home, I understand the appeal of streaming. Books are heavy, records are fragile and boxes of films and games seem to multiply as soon as the movers arrive. In the UAE, where moving between apartments – or countries – is a familiar part of life, a library that fits on a phone is an easy sell. But any flirtation with going digital-only dissipates when I read the news. Have you heard about Project Panama, for instance? In 2024, Anthropic spent tens of millions of dollars buying second-hand books by the million. Their spines were cut off, the loose pages fed through industrial scanners and the paper recycled once the words were digitised. That operation is front of mind again this summer as second-hand booksellers in the UK and Ireland report receiving large orders for obscure, scarce and out-of-print titles, sometimes from buyers whose identities are unclear. Some suspect another AI training operation, although no connection has been established, and Anthropic denies ta