so i just heard about this crazy story involving ai companies and books. apparently, they were scanning millions of books to use as training data, but the thing that's really messed up is that they were destroying the books afterwards. i mean, i know some people might not care about physical books, but for me, there's something special about holding a real book in your hands.



anyway, it turns out that a company called isbndb was involved in this whole thing, and they had a page on their website advertising their services as a "streamlined partner" for ai companies looking to scan books in bulk. but now, that page is gone, and the company is claiming that it was just a "test of market interest" and that they never actually offered the service. which, honestly, sounds like a pretty weak excuse to me.



i did some digging, and it looks like the page is still available on the internet archive, along with a blog post from isbndb about how the books aren't really being destroyed, they're just being "reframed" or something. but let's be real, that's just a bunch of fancy words to make it sound less bad. the fact is, these books are being taken out of circulation, and that's a loss for all of us who love reading and learning.



it's also worth noting that even though isbndb is claiming they never offered this service, there are still a lot of secondhand booksellers who are reporting an uptick in sales to third-party rebuyers. so, even if isbndb wasn't involved, it's clear that something fishy is going on, and it's having a real impact on the book market. preorders are available at major retailers, but i'm not sure if that's reallyRead more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com

What do you think about this?