Anthropic spent billions of dollars to slice the spines off millions of books, including very rare ones.
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Anthropic spent billions of dollars to slice the spines off millions of books, including very rare ones.
AI companies are purchasing large quantities of used and rare books and scanning their contents to train LLMs. They then turn the originals to pulp.
The sum of human thought, digitized and shredded. Every book that gets scanned disappears from the physical world permanently.
Books that survived wars, fires, and centuries of handling are being shredded so an AI can learn to write a better marketing email.
AI isn't just destroying human knowledge.
They're preparing to also:
1. Meter access to knowledge
2. Suppress wages
3. Conduct mass layoffs
4. Meddle in elections
5. Foment race riots & bolster hate campaigns
6. Manipulate public opinion
7. Destroy journalism & science
8. Enable automated warfare
9. Hog water & electric supply
10. Evade pollution regulation
11. Torpedo public health & education
12. Sell out democracy to oligarchs
13. Price & rent fixing
14. Fraud -
Anthropic spent billions of dollars to slice the spines off millions of books, including very rare ones.
AI companies are purchasing large quantities of used and rare books and scanning their contents to train LLMs. They then turn the originals to pulp.
The sum of human thought, digitized and shredded. Every book that gets scanned disappears from the physical world permanently.
Books that survived wars, fires, and centuries of handling are being shredded so an AI can learn to write a better marketing email.
@dbattistella Sure this is a massive amount of physical destruction.
On the other hand: how many private heritages of book collections are thrown into the garbage as the heirs don't have space and taste for physical books? This might be far more destruction collectively, and, I must admit, I can understand that people don't want the burdon to keep masses of old books which they probably won't read anyway.
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This is the magnificent library Anthropic amassed, before destroying it because it gave them a legal copyright loophole.
@dbattistella i hate that copyright necessitates that -
Anthropic spent billions of dollars to slice the spines off millions of books, including very rare ones.
AI companies are purchasing large quantities of used and rare books and scanning their contents to train LLMs. They then turn the originals to pulp.
The sum of human thought, digitized and shredded. Every book that gets scanned disappears from the physical world permanently.
Books that survived wars, fires, and centuries of handling are being shredded so an AI can learn to write a better marketing email.
@dbattistella@mstdn.ca There oughta be a law. -
AI isn't just destroying human knowledge.
They're preparing to also:
1. Meter access to knowledge
2. Suppress wages
3. Conduct mass layoffs
4. Meddle in elections
5. Foment race riots & bolster hate campaigns
6. Manipulate public opinion
7. Destroy journalism & science
8. Enable automated warfare
9. Hog water & electric supply
10. Evade pollution regulation
11. Torpedo public health & education
12. Sell out democracy to oligarchs
13. Price & rent fixing
14. Fraud@Npars01 yes, they want to own knowledge and make us pay for it.
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@dbattistella Sure this is a massive amount of physical destruction.
On the other hand: how many private heritages of book collections are thrown into the garbage as the heirs don't have space and taste for physical books? This might be far more destruction collectively, and, I must admit, I can understand that people don't want the burdon to keep masses of old books which they probably won't read anyway.
@Dusty_Marc @dbattistella It is a circulating economy. Books get sold by antique book stores and return eventually. What happena here stops this dead in its tracks: It is a book burning pyre.
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@dbattistella i hate that copyright necessitates that
Copyright is not the enemy here. Don't go there--the enemy are these heartless, greedy companies that are trying to EVADE the protections of copyright (etc.) which should have (but failed to) save these actual books.
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@Dusty_Marc @dbattistella It is a circulating economy. Books get sold by antique book stores and return eventually. What happena here stops this dead in its tracks: It is a book burning pyre.
@SalemsLot @dbattistella My experience is: they don't buy any more, at least only selected ones. Rest gets burnt.
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Anthropic spent billions of dollars to slice the spines off millions of books, including very rare ones.
AI companies are purchasing large quantities of used and rare books and scanning their contents to train LLMs. They then turn the originals to pulp.
The sum of human thought, digitized and shredded. Every book that gets scanned disappears from the physical world permanently.
Books that survived wars, fires, and centuries of handling are being shredded so an AI can learn to write a better marketing email.
@dbattistella I find it funny that they complain about Chinese AI companies that copy their models and sell them for cheap
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@Npars01 yes, they want to own knowledge and make us pay for it.
"Paying for it twice" is a common strategy in rentier capitalism.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/elon-musk-tesla-ev-subsidies-donald-trump-flip-flop/
The public pay for the research, institutions, & infrastructure via taxation, then pay again as consumers in the form of fees, subscriptions, & payments to private interests seeking profits.
The oligarchs are trying for "paying for it three times" next.
https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/03/19/Governments-Make-Taxpayers-Subsidize-Corporate-Cleanup-Oil-Wells/https://blog.ucs.org/karen-perry-stillerman/us-farm-subsidies-make-taxpayers-pay-twice/
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Copyright is not the enemy here. Don't go there--the enemy are these heartless, greedy companies that are trying to EVADE the protections of copyright (etc.) which should have (but failed to) save these actual books.
@LeslieBurns @dbattistella copyright, artificial scarcity, has always been the problem. there is no material need to restrict copying books, music, videos, software etc.. Copying is never stealing. For long capitalists wanted you to believe it is. Now new capitalists show up. I'm on neither side, but i want copyright to fall -
@LeslieBurns @dbattistella copyright, artificial scarcity, has always been the problem. there is no material need to restrict copying books, music, videos, software etc.. Copying is never stealing. For long capitalists wanted you to believe it is. Now new capitalists show up. I'm on neither side, but i want copyright to fall
Oh...my first block of the day. Joy!
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Oh...my first block of the day. Joy!
@LeslieBurns @dbattistella read marx, please -
Anthropic spent billions of dollars to slice the spines off millions of books, including very rare ones.
AI companies are purchasing large quantities of used and rare books and scanning their contents to train LLMs. They then turn the originals to pulp.
The sum of human thought, digitized and shredded. Every book that gets scanned disappears from the physical world permanently.
Books that survived wars, fires, and centuries of handling are being shredded so an AI can learn to write a better marketing email.
@dbattistella
Horror movie in less than a minute. -
Anthropic spent billions of dollars to slice the spines off millions of books, including very rare ones.
AI companies are purchasing large quantities of used and rare books and scanning their contents to train LLMs. They then turn the originals to pulp.
The sum of human thought, digitized and shredded. Every book that gets scanned disappears from the physical world permanently.
Books that survived wars, fires, and centuries of handling are being shredded so an AI can learn to write a better marketing email.
@dbattistella Hmm, I wonder how close this actually is to what happened to the library in Alexandria.
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@dbattistella Human greed and will to power knows no bounds…
@gimulnautti @dbattistella
...And has no morals. -
Anthropic spent billions of dollars to slice the spines off millions of books, including very rare ones.
AI companies are purchasing large quantities of used and rare books and scanning their contents to train LLMs. They then turn the originals to pulp.
The sum of human thought, digitized and shredded. Every book that gets scanned disappears from the physical world permanently.
Books that survived wars, fires, and centuries of handling are being shredded so an AI can learn to write a better marketing email.
@dbattistella this is horrible. #noAI
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Anthropic spent billions of dollars to slice the spines off millions of books, including very rare ones.
AI companies are purchasing large quantities of used and rare books and scanning their contents to train LLMs. They then turn the originals to pulp.
The sum of human thought, digitized and shredded. Every book that gets scanned disappears from the physical world permanently.
Books that survived wars, fires, and centuries of handling are being shredded so an AI can learn to write a better marketing email.
@dbattistella This is heartbreaking and disgusting. When I have a book in my possession that awful, full of bad information or worse, even then I can't bear to destroy it. I'm of German background--the idea of destroying books hits pretty close to home, and it gives me feels.
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This is the magnificent library Anthropic amassed, before destroying it because it gave them a legal copyright loophole.
@dbattistella Imagine. Rebuilding the Library of Alexandria, then burning it down on purpose.
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@dbattistella I find it funny that they complain about Chinese AI companies that copy their models and sell them for cheap
@frank_zimmermann @dbattistella I find it funny that they can't do anything about it
