Independent bookstores globally are reporting a mysterious increase in bulk purchases, with some retailers noting that single orders now match their typical weekly sales volume. Stuart Manley of Barter Books in Northumberland, who has worked in the trade for 30 years, described the pattern as unprecedented, noting that the orders often lack clear logic, spanning everything from obscure Latin texts to Western novels.

The trend has sparked concerns that these books are being acquired by artificial intelligence firms for data ingestion. This suspicion follows a 2025 US court ruling in a lawsuit brought by authors against the AI company Anthropic. Judge William Alsup determined that using purchased books to train AI software was "exceedingly transformative" and did not violate copyright law. Unsealed court documents revealed that Anthropic’s internal "Project Panama" aimed to "destructively scan all the books in the world," a process that involves removing book spines for rapid digitization before the remaining pages are recycled.

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An Anthropic spokesperson stated that the company uses a mix of public web data and commercially acquired datasets, emphasizing that their acquisition programs do not target rare or antiquarian books. However, the prospect of physical books being destroyed has unsettled many in the trade. Derek Walker, owner of McNaughtan's in Edinburgh, noted that while the destruction of common titles may be negligible, the potential loss of rare, surviving editions from the 18th century presents a significant cultural concern.

Legal experts point out that the regulatory landscape varies by region. Professor Emily Hudson, an intellectual property specialist at Oxford University, noted that under UK law, creating training libraries and performing AI training generally requires the permission of the copyright owner. Despite the ethical unease, some booksellers acknowledge that the surge in demand provides a way to move inventory that has remained unsold for decades.

Source: BBC News