AI companies accused of hoarding and destroying millions of books
Summary
Several public interest groups have asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate AI companies for buying, scanning, and then destroying millions of books. These groups say this practice could limit public access to important books and might be an unfair business practice.Key Facts
- More than a dozen groups sent a letter to the FTC asking for an investigation.
- AI companies reportedly buy many books, scan them to train AI language models, and then destroy the physical copies.
- Some destroyed books may be the last existing copies of those works.
- The groups call this practice "hoard-and-destroy" and say it hurts competition and public access.
- They argue this may violate the FTC Act against unfair business practices.
- A 2025 court ruling said AI developer Anthropic did not break copyright laws by using purchased books for AI training.
- Recent reports claim Amazon also buys books in bulk, scans them for AI, and destroys the originals.
- Neither Anthropic nor Amazon has responded publicly to these claims.
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