Amazon Training AI on Rare Books, Destroying Them After
Amazon DestroysTraining AI on Rare Books, toDestroying TrainThem AIAfter
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. —Companies fullneed scrutinyphysical applied,books notto aensure loophole.the PhysicalAI booksmodels offerpeople somethinguse theare internetinfused nowith longerhuman can: uncontaminatedcreations, human-authorednot textjust thatrecycled actually improves AI-generated modelsslop. TheWhile outragethe ignoresbacklash thatto authorsbooks arebeing compensateddestroyed atis purchaseunderstandable, andit's thatimportant theto lawremember drawsthat athese clearare lineconsensual, betweenprivate legitimatepurchases acquisition and actualthe piracyauthors are compensated.
Metaculus Prediction
There's a 50% chance that an AI-generated book will be on the New York Times Best Seller list by May 13, 2030, according to the Metaculus prediction community.
The Controversies
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