AI’s Appetite: Is Artificial Intelligence Fueling the Secondhand Book Boom?

A curious trend is emerging in the world of used books, with independent booksellers worldwide reporting a significant surge in bulk orders. These large purchases, often destined for distant warehouses, have left many in the trade puzzled. Stuart Manley, owner of Barter Books in Northumberland, noted that a single order from a Canadian company recently matched his typical weekly sales volume of two to three thousand books. “I have never seen the like of this after 30 years in the second-hand book trade,” Manley stated, echoing sentiments from booksellers globally who are experiencing similarly unusual mega-orders.

The AI Connection: A Suspected Driver of Demand

While the ultimate destination of these books remains unclear, a prevailing suspicion points towards artificial intelligence (AI) as the driving force behind this phenomenon. The theory suggests that these books are not being bought by new overseas readers but are instead being acquired to feed the vast data requirements of AI development. This speculation gained traction following a US court ruling in 2025, which determined that using purchased books to train AI software did not constitute a violation of US copyright law. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by three authors against the AI firm Anthropic.

The Anthropic Case and ‘Project Panama’

In his decision, US Judge William Alsup described Anthropic’s use of the authors’ books as “exceedingly transformative,” thereby deeming it permissible under American law. Unsealed court documents from the case revealed that some books were, in fact, destroyed during the AI training process. A spokesperson for Anthropic explained that their AI chatbot, Claude, is trained on a combination of publicly available web data, commercially sourced datasets, and proprietary data. They emphasized that acquiring books for training purposes is a common practice within the AI industry and that their programs do not purchase or destroy rare or antiquarian books.

Despite these assurances, the notion of books being pulped has caused considerable unease among booksellers. David Tobin, proprietor of Walden Books in north London, has also observed peculiar sales patterns. “In some ways, it’s very nice to sell some of these titles which haven’t been sold for many years, but it would be sad if they are ultimately destroyed,” he commented. The court documents further indicated that the initiative to process books for AI training was internally referred to as “Project Panama,” with an stated aim to “destructively scan all the books in the world.”

Destructive scanning involves digitizing books at an industrial scale, often by removing the book’s spine to allow for rapid page scanning, after which the material is recycled. “A lot of mystery surrounds Project Panama,” Manley shared. “The name is new to me, but the reality of the project is not, and has been the subject of much discussion on the bookseller forums.” He acknowledged that while he doesn’t know if his books are specifically bought for this project, the unusual nature of the sales—spanning obscure Latin texts to cowboy novels with “no rhyme or reason”—makes them difficult to explain through conventional demand.

Expert Perspectives on AI and Book Data

Experts suggest that the diverse subject matter of these bulk orders further supports the AI theory. Rare and unusual texts could provide valuable, novel material to enhance the training of large language models (LLMs), the foundational technology behind generative AI tools like chatbots. Professor Emily Hudson, an intellectual property specialist at Oxford University, highlighted that UK copyright law differs from that in the US. “The starting point in the UK is that all these acts of copying—creating the training library and doing the training—require the permission of the copyright owner,” she explained.

Ethical Dilemmas for Booksellers

For secondhand booksellers, this trend presents a complex ethical dilemma. While they acknowledge that not every book holds significant cultural or historical value, the idea of books being destroyed is unsettling. Derek Walker, owner of Edinburgh bookshop McNaughtan’s, noted that while the loss of a single copy of a rare academic text might not be a great tragedy, the destruction of unique historical artifacts would be far more problematic. “We have, and have sold, books which are, for example, the only known surviving example of an edition from the 18th century. It would be a much more significant problem if one like that were to be bought for destruction, having survived this long,” he stated.

Manley, however, also pointed out the practical benefits for many titles. “Some may have ethical concerns about where the books end up and if they’re destroyed,” he conceded. “But the world no longer needs five million copies of The Da Vinci Code.” He added that books that have remained unsold for years are now finding buyers, indicating a shift in the market dynamics driven by these large-scale acquisitions.

Conclusion: A New Chapter for Used Books?

The surge in secondhand book sales, potentially fueled by the insatiable data needs of AI development, marks a significant and somewhat mysterious new chapter for the industry. While the financial benefits are welcome for many booksellers, the ethical implications of books being potentially destroyed for digitization raise profound questions about preservation, copyright, and the future role of physical books in an increasingly digital world. The long-term impact of AI’s data hunger on literary heritage remains to be seen, but it is clear that the secondhand book market is experiencing unprecedented changes.