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.
Yet we've known how to scan intact books for the past six decades.
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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 somehow it reminds me of nazis burning books in the 1930s
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@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.
@ZenHeathen They want to be the information gatekeepers, demanding a toll for every bit of knowledge we need and crave. Reminds me of the Edward G. Robinson character Sol, in the dystopian film Soylent Green:
"Sol: Do you know how many books were published in this country once upon a time - when there was paper, power, and press that worked?"
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@Dusty_Marc @dbattistella
I dont get your point. Destroying books for ideology (in this case singularity) is a fascist method. This is cultural warfare. It is inexcusable.@SalemsLot @dbattistella what do you do when your parents deceise and you get to own all their stuff including thousands of books. And you go to the second hand book stores and the all tell you they have no space and thus no offer.
This Problem arises currently, thousand fold. And when the baby boomers will die away, it will get even more so.
Can you get my point now? -
@SalemsLot @dbattistella what do you do when your parents deceise and you get to own all their stuff including thousands of books. And you go to the second hand book stores and the all tell you they have no space and thus no offer.
This Problem arises currently, thousand fold. And when the baby boomers will die away, it will get even more so.
Can you get my point now?@Dusty_Marc @dbattistella
Actually, no. We're talking antiques, not random popular culture. Books that have no monetary value and are sold and bought by the kilo. Yet, they are not worthless, even if they fill inexpensive stores with low rent, low profit. You are perceiving this only via the financial value (like the slop producers are). You miss that these repositories are shared culture and people actually USE these. They are gone now, bought and destroyed by predators. We have been pillaged. -
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 that's disgusting and deeply disturbing.
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@Dusty_Marc @dbattistella
Actually, no. We're talking antiques, not random popular culture. Books that have no monetary value and are sold and bought by the kilo. Yet, they are not worthless, even if they fill inexpensive stores with low rent, low profit. You are perceiving this only via the financial value (like the slop producers are). You miss that these repositories are shared culture and people actually USE these. They are gone now, bought and destroyed by predators. We have been pillaged.@SalemsLot @dbattistella antiques, ok. It's a tiny fraction of books existing. And when I watch the anthropic film, these books don't look like Guttenberg Bibles.
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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 @5ciFiGirl when I heard that LLMs were going to destroy culture, I never imagined it would be this literal
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@dbattistella @5ciFiGirl when I heard that LLMs were going to destroy culture, I never imagined it would be this literal
I only got through a few seconds of that video. it was too painful!!!
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This is the magnificent library Anthropic amassed, before destroying it because it gave them a legal copyright loophole.
@dbattistella Fact check: very likely.
According to news.com.au -
The slicing is "a video from Canada's ABTec Solutions demonstrates the process of cutting books' spines prior to scanning."
The warehouse pic: "Court filings show a warehouse of books to be scanned by Anthropic. Picture: Washington Post"
The original reporting seems to be from the great 404media, but it's paywalled.
Technically, the books are scanned and "survive" on Anthropic data centers. But I highly doubt Anthropic or any "AI" company is going to try to resell, donate, etc. their digital copies, even having destroyed the original. So the world does lose a copy of the book without any gain for people who don't use Anthropic LLMs or IP.
https://www.404media.co/ai-companies-are-buying-tons-of-old-books-because-theyre-free-of-ai-slop/
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I only got through a few seconds of that video. it was too painful!!!
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@SalemsLot @dbattistella antiques, ok. It's a tiny fraction of books existing. And when I watch the anthropic film, these books don't look like Guttenberg Bibles.
@Dusty_Marc @dbattistella
Its millions of rare and specific titles, often out of print, and probably the last in existence.
Since you are again focusing on financial worth, i want to part with this conversation now. I dont agree on book burner tactics. -
@dbattistella somehow it reminds me of nazis burning books in the 1930s
@ralocycleuse Even the Nazis didn't destroy all copies of rare books so that all of humanity would be denied their knowledge.
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I only got through a few seconds of that video. it was too painful!!!
@5ciFiGirl @dbattistella it reminded me of this fantastic video though. Taking the spines off the Discworld books, which aren't rare, and creating a beautiful art that preserves the writing. If you need a timeline cleanse
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Yet we've known how to scan intact books for the past six decades.
@EricBono Yes, but if you destroy the book, no one can accuse you of having copied it, or demand payment for it.
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@dbattistella That's nothing more than modern-day book burning.
@oliverboehme Yes, on a global scale
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@dbattistella@mstdn.ca There oughta be a law.
@driusan The laws never seem to apply to capitalists.
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This is the magnificent library Anthropic amassed, before destroying it because it gave them a legal copyright loophole.
@dbattistella@mstdn.ca that's fucking despicable, makes me sick
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This is the magnificent library Anthropic amassed, before destroying it because it gave them a legal copyright loophole.
@dbattistella shit
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This is the magnificent library Anthropic amassed, before destroying it because it gave them a legal copyright loophole.
@dbattistella Do you have a location of this warehouse?
