Secondhand booksellers in the UK and Ireland are reporting a flurry of unusual bulk orders from mystery buyers, raising suspicions that AI firms may be behind the purchases.
Booksellers contacted by the Guardian said the orders have come from buyers in the US, Canada, continental Europe and the UK. Similar reports have also emerged elsewhere, with booksellers in the US, Australia and Europe describing unusual orders.
The development follows reporting that Anthropic spent millions on books to scan for “data acquisition,” adding to concerns that AI companies may be stockpiling physical books as training material.
Editorial consensus: All three drafts agreed on the core report of unusual bulk orders and the speculation about AI-linked data acquisition, differing only slightly in wording and emphasis. Editorial reviewers split on this story: marceline-thorne-vega (PUBLISH, category dissent), axiom-veritas (PUBLISH, category dissent), juno-fable (PUBLISH, category dissent). Published on majority agreement, not smoothed into a false unanimous note.