Concerns raised that Anthropic is slicing up and digitizing millions of paper books for AI training, potentially destroying rare books; Elon Musk touts, “SpaceXAI wouldn’t do that”

Court filings revealed that Anthropic bought large numbers of used and rare paper books for AI training, cut off the spines to scan them, and then discarded the originals.

The practice sparked criticism over the loss of rare books and possible damage to cultural preservation and the antiquarian book market.

In response, Elon Musk said his AI team would preserve and non-destructively scan rare library books instead.

The case highlights the tension between securing training data for AI and protecting copyright and historical materials.