Consumer groups in the US want the government to look at AI companies. The groups claim that AI companies are digitizing rare books to train their large language models (LLMs). The process includes breaking the spines of the books, scanning the pages, and then destroying them. Some books may be the last copies of the original texts. Critics say such books are historically important. One critic said we needed to preserve old books.

The bulk buying of books is creating a problem for book stores. They are getting large orders for valuable books, but are also questioning the ethics of destroying books. Booksellers are getting unusually large orders for valuable books. Some of these books are apparently being bought not to be read, but to be scanned. The Washington Post reported that AI companies are spending lots of money on millions of books to help train AI assistants.