AI Companies Are Buying Rare Books, Scanning Them for Training Data, Then Shredding Them
Multiple AI companies are buying rare books, scanning them for training data, then shredding the originals — including irreplaceable texts.
Bloomberg is reporting that Chinese state media has declared Beijing's support for open AI models "has limits" — a notable departure from the government's prior position, which had treated open-source AI development as a strategic competitive advantage over U.S.-led closed models.
The language suggests regulators may be weighing new restrictions, though no specific policy has been announced. The shift in rhetoric points to concerns around dual-use capabilities and politically sensitive content as likely pressure points — though the details remain unconfirmed.
What is at stake is substantial: Chinese labs including DeepSeek and Moonshot have become among the most prolific producers of frontier open models globally. Any regulatory clampdown on that output would ripple across the open-source AI ecosystem well beyond China's borders — the rest of the world has been a direct beneficiary of these releases.
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Multiple AI companies are buying rare books, scanning them for training data, then shredding the originals — including irreplaceable texts.
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