A viral social media claim alleges that artificial intelligence (AI) companies are buying millions of physical books—including rare titles—scanning them to train AI models, and then destroying the originals. Available evidence suggests the claim is partly true, but several key details remain unverified.
Court-released documents related to a copyright lawsuit indicate that AI company Anthropic purchased large numbers of physical books for digitization as part of its AI training process. However, there is no conclusive evidence that all AI companies follow the same practice or that rare books were systematically targeted.
What the Court Documents Show
According to documents reviewed by fact-checking website Snopes, internal Anthropic records revealed plans to purchase physical books, scan them for AI model training, and dispose of the printed copies afterward. The documents became public during copyright litigation.
One internal document from April 2024 referred to the initiative as “Project Panama.” It described a workflow designed to rapidly digitize books for AI training. High-speed scanning typically requires removing a book’s spine so that individual pages can be scanned efficiently, a process that usually renders the physical copy unusable.
Another internal document indicated that by October 2024, Anthropic had acquired millions of books, although the exact number was not disclosed.
Were Rare Books Included?
The documents mention a preference for acquiring “less common” books. However, they do not clearly define whether this referred to genuinely rare books or simply books that were less widely available or less commercially popular.
As a result, there is no verified evidence that Anthropic specifically targeted rare or historically significant books for destruction.
Are All AI Companies Doing This?
Current evidence does not support the broader claim that all AI companies are buying, scanning, and destroying millions of books.
While court documents provide evidence of Anthropic’s digitization project, similar large-scale practices by other AI developers have not been independently confirmed.
Fact Check Verdict
The claim is mostly true regarding Anthropic’s documented practice of purchasing and scanning physical books before discarding them. However, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that rare books were intentionally targeted or that the same practice is widespread across the entire AI industry.
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