FTC Asked to Probe AI Firms Over Book Destruction for Training
By Business Desk
Civil society groups urge the FTC to investigate AI companies like Anthropic for allegedly destroying books in their AI model training processes, citing anti-competitive concerns.
A coalition comprising over a dozen civil-society organizations has formally requested the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launch an investigation into leading artificial intelligence (AI) companies. The core concern revolves around whether these firms are engaging in anti-competitive practices by acquiring, digitally scanning, and subsequently destroying physical books to train their AI models.
This appeal specifically highlights disclosures, such as **Anthropic’s** ‘Project Panama,’ as evidence of these methods. Under this project, millions of physical books were acquired and subjected to destructive scanning techniques, like spine removal for rapid processing, before being recycled.
Understanding the ‘Hoard-and-Destroy’ Allegation
The coalition, which includes organizations such as the Demand Progress Education Fund and the Consumer Federation of America, contends that this ‘hoard-and-destroy’ method significantly harms market competition. By systematically removing original source material from the open market, dominant AI companies gain an unfair advantage.
- This practice could substantially increase operational costs for emerging AI competitors.
- It grants established AI companies exclusive access to digital versions of these works.
- The groups are particularly concerned about the irreplaceable loss of less common, out-of-print, and specialized books once destroyed.
They argue that this strategy represents an escalation of anti-competitive conduct designed to create systemic barriers around established AI incumbents. This effectively limits market entry and growth for newer players in the AI development space.
Shifting the Antitrust Focus
Crucially, the complaint does not aim to restrict AI training activities themselves. Instead, its focus is squarely on the competitive implications arising from the acquisition and destruction of physical books to create private datasets.
An antitrust investigation would examine whether these actions specifically exclude competitors from accessing vital training data. This inquiry would shift the broader public debate from discussions of copyright infringement to a direct focus on competition policy and fair market practices within the AI industry.
- **Organizations:** Demand Progress Education Fund, Consumer Federation of America
- **Company cited:** Anthropic
- **Project:** Project Panama