AI Companies Destroying Rare Books: Who Can Stop Them?

Companies in the AI sector are acquiring and obliterating old and rare books to develop large language models, a practice that has ignited debate. Anthropic's initiative, 'Project Panama,' has bought two million books, disassembled them, digitized the pages, and then destroyed the remnants. This destruction aims to secure legal safety under the 'transformative fair use' principle. Philosopher Patrick Stokes contends that this rationale is insufficient, highlighting the enduring significance of artifacts, as evidenced by DNA analysis of medieval vellum. Concerns also arise regarding the disappearance of physical copies, particularly of rare texts. While some consider this a form of recycling, others label it as vandalism. The article raises the question of who can intervene in this trend.