{"id":797419,"date":"2026-08-01T13:07:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T13:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/797419\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T13:07:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T13:07:22","slug":"company-offering-printed-books-to-train-ai-stops-after-404-media-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/797419\/","title":{"rendered":"Company Offering Printed Books to Train AI Stops After 404 Media Coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following 404 Media\u2019s reporting that book database company ISBNdb <\/a>claimed to source printed books to then sell to AI companies for AI training, the company deleted the part of its website offering the service and walked back claims that it would train AI models, and instead called it \u201ca test of market interest.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

On July 30, nine days after 404 Media\u2019s reporting, ISBNdb added a note to its homepage and an update on its news page<\/a> about the change. \u201cWe’ve seen the recent coverage about a marketing landing page on our site, and we understand the concern it raised. The facts: ISBNdb has never purchased, scanned, or sold a book \u2014 for AI training or anything else,\u201d ISBNdb wrote. \u201cWe don’t train AI models, and we never have. The page was a test of market interest; no such service was ever brought to life. We’ve taken the page down. Our job is helping people find books. For more than two decades, ISBNdb has been the card catalog of the book world \u2014 the data behind how bookstores, libraries, and reading apps connect readers with titles. Data about books, not the books themselves. That hasn’t changed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

ISBNdb removed the landing page for \u201cPrinted Books Sourcing for Your AI LLMs Dataset Needs\u201d<\/a> on July 28. \u201cIt was part of exploring demand, and we’ve chosen to pivot away from that direction. Our main ISBNdb (book metadata API) services are unaffected and running as usual,\u201d the site says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ISBNdb replied to 404 Media’s request for comment about the removed pages with the same note that’s now on the homepage. The company has not replied to 404 Media’s previous attempts to reach it for comment.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

AI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They\u2019re Free of AI Slop<\/p>\n

ISBNdb, a company that sources printed books for AI companies to turn into training data, tells clients \u201cthe optics problem is real.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In one now-removed article on its site<\/a>, ISBNdb said that printed books published before 2022 are ideal for AI training data because they don\u2019t include AI generated text, and ingesting these books could prevent model collapse. The article also suggested that book authors who might be opposed to this use of their work could just write with manipulating and sabotaging AI models in mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

404 Media spoke to booksellers and saw reports online detailing a sudden uptick in sales recently. \u201cIt’s not just the quantity, but the weirdness of the orders,\u201d one bookseller told 404 Media. \u201cThe type of books […] there’s no rhyme or reason to it. Also, there’s a total disregard for the price of the book. I’ve had some books that sold through this way that were […] greatly overpriced. That’s kind of a tell for AI because they have just so much money.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPurchasing paper books at scale from the secondary market does not deprive any creator of income they would otherwise have received,\u201d one of ISBNdb\u2019s now-removed pages said. \u201cThese are books that have already fully discharged their financial obligation to their creators.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In January, book authors filed a copyright lawsuit<\/a> against Anthropic, revealing internal documents that showed Anthropic planned to obtain and scan millions of printed books and destroy them in the process. An investigation by the Washington Post found<\/a> that Anthropic was buying books from a company called Better World Books, one of several marketplaces where libraries, retailers, and individuals sell books.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In ISBNdb\u2019s now-removed marketing materials, it admitted that getting caught destroying printed books during the scanning process would not be a good look. \u201cThe optics problem is real,\u201d ISBNdb\u2019s site said<\/a>. \u201c\u2018AI company destroys two million books\u2019 is not a headline that generates sympathy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emanuel Maiberg contributed reporting to this story.<\/p>\n

About the author<\/p>\n

Sam Cole is writing from the far reaches of the internet, about sexuality, the adult industry, online culture, and AI. She’s the author of How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex.<\/p>\n

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