AI companies destroy physical books – let's scan rare books before it's too late

AI firms are secretly buying, scanning, and then destroying millions of physical books to obtain “pre-2022” training data, exemplified by Anthropic’s “Project Panama,” which spent tens of millions on the operation and was revealed in a $1.5 billion copyright settlement. The practice monopolizes digitized knowledge on private servers, prompting Anna’s Archive to rally global volunteers to scan and upload rare, journal, and newspaper materials before the physical copies disappear.