Independent booksellers are noticing a significant and unusual surge in the sales of used literature. This unexpected boom has raised questions among industry experts regarding the ultimate destination of the books, with many suspects pointing toward the rapidly expanding field of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Unusual Sales Patterns Observed by Booksellers
Across the globe, booksellers are reporting remarkably large, irregular orders of used books. Stuart Manley, who runs Barter Books in Northumberland, noted that while a typical week might generate sales of two or three thousand volumes, a single recent bulk purchase from a Canadian company equaled what he usually moves in seven days. Mr. Manley stated that, after 30 years in the used book trade, he had never encountered such an event.
Booksellers worldwide are experiencing similar massive transactions, though they are unsure what purpose these books serve. The prevailing suspicion is that the purchases are not intended for individual international readers, but rather for a technology with an immense demand for fresh data: AI.
The Legal Basis for AI Training
The theory linking the secondhand book surge to AI is tied to a legal ruling that took place in the United States. In 2025, a judge ruled that utilizing purchased books for the purpose of training AI software did not violate U.S. copyright law. This decision stemmed from a lawsuit filed by three authors against the AI firm Anthropic.
In his ruling, Judge William Alsup determined that Anthropic’s use of the authors’ works was “exceedingly transformative,” thereby allowing its use under U.S. law. When court documents related to the case were released last month, it also emerged that the training process involved the destruction of books.
An Anthropic spokesperson explained that the chatbot, Claude, is trained using a combination of publicly accessible web data, datasets acquired commercially, and self-generated data. The spokesperson asserted that sourcing books for training is a widely utilized practice across the AI sector. They added, “None of our data acquisition programs buy and destroy rare or antiquarian books.”
Claude is trained on a mix of publicly available web data, commercially acquired datasets, and data we generate ourselves.
They insisted sourcing books for training was a widely used approach across the AI industry. “None of our data acquisition programs buy and destroy rare or antiquarian books,” they added.
Concerns Over Destruction and ‘Project Panama’
Despite the assurances, the idea that physical books are being destroyed remains a source of concern. David Tobin, who operates Walden Books in North London, commented, “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.”
The court documents related to the Anthropic matter revealed that the project of ingesting older books was referenced in internal company communications as “Project Panama.” These documents indicated that the company’s stated goal was to “destructively scan all the books in the world.”
Destructive scanning involves shipping books to facilities where they are digitized on an industrial scale. This process includes removing the book’s spine to allow for rapid scanning of all pages, after which the remaining materials are recycled.
Stuart Manley noted the mystery surrounding “Project Panama,” stating, “A lot of mystery surrounds Project Panama. 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 added that while he is unaware if his books are being purchased for this project or similar ventures, the sales are difficult to account for, appearing random with “no rhyme or reason,” ranging from obscure Latin texts to cowboy novels.
Expert Analysis and Ethical Dilemmas
Experts suggest that the diverse range of subjects points strongly toward AI needs. Unusual and rare texts can provide fresh material to enhance the training of large language models, which are the technology foundation for generative AI tools like chatbots.
Professor Emily Hudson, an intellectual property specialist at Oxford University, clarified that copyright laws in the United Kingdom differ from those in the U.S. She explained, “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.”
For booksellers, the situation presents a genuine dilemma. While they admit that not every title is irreplaceable, they remain uncomfortable with the concept of destruction. Derek Walker, owner of McNaughtan’s in Edinburgh, acknowledged that an academic text published in only 100 copies, 75 of which are already in libraries, might not represent a major loss if one copy is destroyed. However, he emphasized that losing a unique, surviving edition from the 18th century would be a far more significant problem.
Manley offered a counterpoint, suggesting that recycling can be a beneficial solution for titles the public no longer wants on their shelves, especially when it helps boost trade. He concluded that while some may worry about the destination or destruction of the books, “the world no longer needs five million copies of The Da Vinci Code.”
