I'm the Guy Who Destroys Antique Books After We Scan Them into Our Company's AI
What happened
A worker at a tech company explains that after they scan rare, antique books to feed into the firm’s AI platform, the physical copies are shredded or otherwise destroyed. The practice is justified internally as a way to free up storage space and protect the originals from handling, but it raises eyebrows because the books are cultural artifacts that could be lost forever. The article highlights the tension between building massive AI datasets and preserving historical materials.
Why it matters
This reveals a growing willingness in the AI industry to sacrifice physical heritage for data, prompting calls for stricter guidelines on how rare works are used and preserved when digitized for machine learning.
Is this a big deal?
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