AI companies are shredding rare books | Hacker News

Commenters debated whether AI firms are buying physical books, disbinding them, and scanning them for training data as a cheaper, legally safer shortcut.

Critics warned that this process could damage or destroy rare books and other valuable volumes in the name of digitization.

The discussion also pointed to deeper problems in copyright, lending, and digital access rules that shape how books can be used.

Archive.org, shadow libraries, publishers, and book scanning were cited as part of a broader fight over AI training data and cultural preservation.