Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company, is engaged in a project called Project Panama, aimed at acquiring and scanning printed books for training data. The initiative involves destructively scanning books, which has raised ethical concerns among booksellers and academics. Starting in early 2026, booksellers across the U.S. began receiving unusual order requests from entities like Green Parrot Project and Red Sparrow Project, leading to a surge in sales of niche and obscure titles. Sylvia Petras, a Toronto bookseller, reported receiving similar orders, prompting her to investigate the buyers' intentions.
The scanning process involves stripping bindings, cutting pages, and using industrial-grade machines to digitize the content, resulting in the physical destruction of the books. While this practice is not uncommon in certain academic settings, it has sparked controversy due to fears of losing rare and valuable texts. However, Anthropic has stated that it does not acquire rare or antiquarian books for this purpose.
Experts, including Meredith Martin from Princeton, noted that while the destruction of books is a routine practice in libraries, the focus on rare books in the media has created a misleading narrative. Many books sold to Anthropic are not rare, with most being published after 1970 and often having low print runs.
Legal challenges have emerged against Anthropic, including a class-action lawsuit settled for $1.5 billion, where authors accused the company of copyright violations for using their works without permission. The presiding judge acknowledged the fair use of books for AI training, stating that authors cannot exclude others from using their works for learning purposes. Brandon Butler, a copyright lawyer, supported this view, arguing that AI training represents a fair use of cultural works, as it utilizes facts and ideas that belong to the public domain.