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Amazon Destroys Rare Books to Train AI

Amazon Destroys Rare Books to Train AI

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The Spin


Amazon's industrial-scale book destruction is a cultural catastrophe dressed up as innovation. Physical books — especially rare and out-of-print titles — are being obliterated to feed AI models that can't even sustain themselves on their own output, because AI-generated text degrades the very tools it trains. The entire scheme depends on anonymous middlemen and opacity precisely because the companies behind it know the public would never accept it.

Buying and scanning physical books for AI training is fully legal under First Sale Doctrine, and a federal judge has already ruled it's fair use — full scrutiny applied, not a loophole. Physical books offer something the internet no longer can: uncontaminated, human-authored text that actually improves AI models. The outrage ignores that authors are compensated at purchase, and that the law draws a clear line between legitimate acquisition and actual piracy.


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© 2026 Improve the News Foundation. All rights reserved.Version 7.4.1

© 2026 Improve the News Foundation.

All rights reserved.

Version 7.4.1