Bulk Orders Surge at Used Bookstores in Japan; 50 Tons Sent to U.S.

ivanjermakov

So they ran out of information on the internet...

shoo

Via google translate: > It has been discovered that online used bookstores across Japan have been receiving a surge of large orders for books since around August of this year. Interviews with these bookstores reveal reports of "100 books sold per day" and "days where sales have increased fivefold," leading to widespread speculation within the industry that the orders are intended to collect training data for generative AI (artificial intelligence). Further investigation revealed records of over 50 tons of books being exported from Japan to the United States. Is it acceptable for books to be consumed and discarded for AI training? [...] > Nippon Television investigated using "Sayari," a tool that analyzes import and export data, and confirmed records that a group company of this major Japanese book distributor exported more than 50 tons of "JAPANESE BOOKS" to the US since last year. Assuming that all the books were heavy hardcovers (calculated at 500 grams), this would amount to the equivalent of 100,000 books.

karim79

Buy as many books as you want but please don't burn after scanning.

glimshe

I'm strongly against destroying books to train AI. That said, I'd be extremely interested in exploring the contents of Japanese books, which probably have a lot of stuff not available outside Japan, through a LLM.