Booksellers raise alarm over AI firms bulk-buying and destroying rare books

Booksellers are growing suspicious that artificial intelligence companies are purchasing rare books in bulk, potentially to use their contents for training AI models. The concern is that these books may be destroyed after their text is extracted, permanently removing them from circulation. Independent booksellers have begun resisting such sales, wary of unknowingly contributing to the loss of scarce literary works. The trend highlights a broader tension between the AI industry's appetite for training data and the preservation of rare and irreplaceable physical texts.