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To: Les H who wrote (51193)	1/27/2026 9:30:15 AM
From: Les H	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 51321

How Silicon Valley built AI: Buying, scanning and discarding millions of books Story by Aaron Schaffer, Will Oremus, Nitasha Tiku Washington Post January 27, 2026 Books were viewed by the companies as a crucial prize, the court records show. In a January 2023 document, one Anthropic co-founder theorized that training AI models on books could teach them “how to write well” instead of mimicking “low quality internet speak.” A 2024 email inside Meta described accessing a digital trove of books as “essential” to being competitive with its AI rivals. But court records suggest the companies didn’t see it as practical to gain direct permission from publishers and authors to use their work. Instead, Anthropic, Meta and other companies found ways to acquire books in bulk without the authors’ knowledge, court filings allege, including by downloading pirated copies. How Silicon Valley built AI: Buying, scanning and discarding millions of books