Multiple civil society organizations are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate artificial intelligence companies for allegedly destroying physical books used in training their systems. Groups including the Demand Progress Education Fund, Consumer Federation of America, and Institute for Local Self-Reliance have submitted a letter urging the FTC to examine the practice through an antitrust lens, arguing that each destroyed book represents a resource unavailable to competing AI developers.
The organizations claim AI firms are deliberately targeting older publications, particularly those released before 2022, because such texts are guaranteed to be human-written and typically well-edited. According to the civil society groups, this destruction strategy functions as an anticompetitive tactic that raises costs for rival companies and startups seeking access to quality training materials essential for developing competing AI technologies.
The letter characterizes the book destruction as part of a broader pattern of anticompetitive behavior designed to entrench dominant AI companies. Rather than being treated as an isolated incident, the groups frame it as a systematic mechanism that could unfairly advantage established players while blocking new market entrants from accessing key resources needed to compete effectively in the AI sector.
Originally reported by Mashable →
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