Discussion

• @mamagrizbskysocial Leslie Patten on bluesky

  In their lawsuit, the authors alleged that Meta higher-ups considered paying for books to train their AI models but opted to instead download millions of books free from “torrent” platforms that facilitate online piracy. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/ 2...

• @eilperin Juliet Eilperin on x

  Slicing the spines off of millions of books, while downloading pirated versions of millions more: Inside one company's secret plan to ‘destructively scan every book in the world.’ By Aaron Schaffer, @WillOremus and @nitashatiku https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

• @emilyflitter Emily Flitter on bluesky

  This story led me to conclude that the rule of law is an illusion clung to only by those who lack sufficient lust for power & money.  The method of buying used books, ripping their spines apart & scanning every page turned out to be the more legally sound method www.washingtonpos…

• @willoremus Will Oremus on x

  New: Unsealed court docs detail Big Tech's yearslong, secret race to ingest the collective works of humanity, including Anthropic's project to “destructively scan all the books in the world.” [image]

• @willoremus.com Will Oremus on bluesky

  Anthropic's project to “destructively scan all the books in the world” was actually viewed as the *more* ethical and legally sound approach to training its AI.  —  Previously the industry standard had been simply to pirate vast “shadow libraries” of digitized books for free onlin…

• @tedunderwood.com Ted Underwood on bluesky

  Journalists have to eat, so the frame for this article plays up “slicing spines” of books &c.  But imo this is actually (like Google Books) an inspiring story of people getting their acts together to organize and transform knowledge.  I only wish universities could coordinate as …

• @mollymckew Molly McKew on bluesky

  “The humans cut apart all the books filled with their knowledge to teach the AI” is absolutely the beginning of a good sci-fi series  —  www.washingtonpost.com/technology/ 2...

• @willoremus.com Will Oremus on bluesky

  New: Unsealed court docs detail Big Tech's yearslong, secret race to ingest the collective works of humanity, including Anthropic's project to “destructively scan all the books in the world.”  —  Gift link: wapo.st/4rjXAMQ

• r/technology r on reddit

  How Silicon Valley built AI: Buying, scanning and discarding millions of books

• @nitashatiku Nitasha Tiku on x

  machines of spine-slicing grace? ... some of my favorite snippets from newly-released court docs in the Anthropic books copyright case let's start w/ Project Panama, their plan to “destructively scan all the books in the world” to train AI [image]

• @tonytassell Tony Tassell on bluesky

  good read here on how Silicon Valley trained AI by buying, scanning and destroying millions of books www.washingtonpost.com/technology/ 2...

• @natejhake Nate Hake on x

  Centuries of human culture, stolen & fed to a machine so it can regurgitate AI slop for tech companies to force-feed the masses in an attempt rot our brains enough that we can be controlled via a surveillance techno-capitalist state.

• @neilturkewitz Neil Turkewitz on x

  @AnnahBackstrom ... Yes, great piece shining light on the unsavory practices of tech companies in training their AI models. One comment—while it's true that both Alsup & Chhabria ruled in favor of fair use, they were two quite different lower court decisions, & Chhabria left the …

• @willoremus Will Oremus on x

  Our story today on Anthropic's “Project Panama” — which was an effort to find a more legal/ethical approach to vacuuming up the world's books than the previous industry standard, which was simply to torrent them from online pirates. Gift link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

• r/technology r on reddit

  Inside a tech company's secretive plan to destroy millions of books |  Court filings reveal how AI companies raced to obtain more books to feed chatbots …

• r/technews r on reddit

  How Silicon Valley built AI: Buying, scanning and destroying millions of books

• @davidrlurie.com @davidrlurie.com on bluesky

  Putting the sometimes complicated legal issues aside, this is simply nauseating.