Intent not malicious, it's indifference: Thousands, if not millions, of books sent to AI woodchipper

François Picard is pleased to welcome investigative journalist Emanuel Maiberg, Co-founder of 404 Media. As we embark on AI's uncharted waters, Maiberg has made a most unexpected discovery:: the mass acquisition, dismemberment and scanning of rare books for use as training data. His investigation reveals a globalised and deliberately opaque supply chain in which books purchased through anonymous marketplaces can ultimately arrive at large-scale scanning facilities, where their bindings are removed so that pages can be processed at great speed.

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