Book Database Shutters AI Service Following Outrage Over Destroyed Rare Texts

ISBNdb took down a landing page that appeared to market book-based AI training data after public backlash.

The company says it never trained AI models and that the page was only a market test.

The controversy comes amid reports of bulk book buying and earlier revelations about Anthropic’s book-scanning and destruction practices.

It underscores rising scrutiny of how AI firms source training data, especially when rare books and copyright are involved.