World's largest open library calls for volunteers to scan and preserve physical books as AI companies buy, scan, and destroy them — Anna's Archive says ‘time is running out’ as ‘knowledge is permanent
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/74448280
cross-posted from: https://kbin.earth/m/[email protected]/t/3120649
As AI tech companies increasingly buy and destroy books to feed to their AI models, Anna's Archive is calling for volunteers to help preserve them for the public record.
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/worlds-largest-open-library-calls-for-volunteers-to-scan-and-preserve-physical-books-as-ai-companies-buy-scan-and-destroy-them-annas-archive-says-time-is-running-out-as-knowledge-is-permanently-monopolized-on-private-serversOpen linkView original on lemmy.dbzer0.com
4 replies
I don't get it. Can't they just...print more books?
A book from 1920 will probably not get printed again
...why not?
If it hasn't been printed more than once in a literal century, is that really a loss?
Potentially, yes. Sure, it could just be some smut novel, but it could also provide insight into a certain group or people's perspective on societal/political events at the time, contributing to a better painted big picture on an event we thought we knew all there is to know about.
A very recent example is the VHS tapes that contained unseen and unpublished footage of Tiananmen Square.