Tech Giants Are Buying Rare Books to Train AI

Tech giants are quietly raiding Europe’s rare book dealers, snapping up obscure titles not to read them—but to scan and train AI models, sparking panic and suspicion across the industry. From Dutch booksellers receiving bizarre orders for 3,000 niche academic texts to dealers in Spain and Switzerland reporting overnight surges, the pattern points to a coordinated, large-scale data-harvesting operation. A 2025 U.S. court ruling that destroying books for AI training could be “fair use” has emboldened these companies, fueling fears that physical books are being shipped overseas to feed AI hunger. Booksellers call it a scam—random, massive, and disconnected from real collecting—and warn their livelihoods are under siege as AI developers dig deeper into the physical world for raw text. Support the show:Get a discount at https://solipillow.com/discount/dnn. Advertise on DNN:[email protected] This is an automated, high-level news summary based on public reporting.Report issues to [email protected]. View sources & latest updates:https://sources.thednn.ai/c1ba86cd11767305