Secondhand booksellers in UK and Ireland suspect AI firms behind ‘strange’ bulk orders
TL;DR
Development comes after Anthropic was found to have spent millions on books to scan for ‘data acquisition’ Secondhand booksellers in the UK and Ireland are reporting a flurry of bulk orders from mystery buyers, amid speculation AI companies are acquiring the tomes for their data. Bookshops contacted by the Guardian say they have been receiving orders from buyers in the US, Canada, continental Europe and the UK.
Nauti's Take
For small secondhand shops, bulk orders from anonymous buyers are an unexpected opportunity: real revenue, and proof that printed text has become valuable training material. The problem is everything around it.
Buyers stay anonymous, the books get cut apart and scanned, and the authors see none of that money. Sellers gain in the short term, while writers have every reason to push harder on the compensation question now.
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